Comic review: John Flood #1- Edward Cullen + John Constantine + Dr Who = John Flood

Writer: Justin Jordan
Art: Jorge Coelho
Colours: Tamra Bonvillain
Publisher: Boom! Studios
Released: 5th August 2015



If you like John Constantine and tales about supernatural serial killers, then you’ll probably enjoy John Flood #1.

However, for anybody looking for something original, subversive, creative or contemporary, there’s not a lot going on in this book that will appeal to you.

This debut issue concentrates on establishing the world, the characters, the villain and the plot.

The world is a comic book anytime. The characters use computers and iphones, but they could easily be replaced with libraries and payphones, and it wouldn’t have made any difference to the direction and flow of the narrative.

The characters themselves are not very memorable. John Flood looks like Edward Cullen and acts like a quirky Doctor Who. He is generically eccentric, but not real, and not interesting to me.

His sidekicks are more straight-laced, as you would expect them to be, and the villain is a generic movie serial killer type, an evil genius who just wants to see the world burn.

The plot is entirely unremarkable. It’s disappointingly dull, routine and lacking in a big central idea, or hook. Here it is: A serial killer is doing what (movie) serial killers do, and it’s up to John Flood to use his wacky supernatural powers to stop him. He can’t do it all by himself though, so he has a chirpy young girl and an ex cop to help him out.

This first issue establishes the help, and ends with the serial killer being all evil and coming to get John and his buddies, or something. That’s not a lot of plot, but that’s all you are going to get if you pick up John Flood #1

The art is actually pretty good. The backgrounds in particular stood out to me, with otherworldly whirls and hints of far off galaxies and realities. Some of the characters are a bit too square jawed and muscular to be real people, but that’s a minor point. I enjoyed the art. It’s the rest of the book that lets it down.

I hate it when I read #1’s and they are not very good, especially when they come from publishers like Boom! Studios, a publisher I want to support, just because they are not Marvel or DC. But what can I do?

John Flood #1 isn’t going to set the world on fire, so I have to be honest about it. The book is very generic, reads like Constantine, and I can’t really see it doing a lot, or getting anybody out there in the comic book world particularly excited. Sorry, but it’s blah. I don’t want it to be blah, but blah is what it is.


Rating: 5/10 (Blah book, nice art)