WMDs Review

Comic books and the iPad seem like a match made in heaven, but there are still some kinks to work out before they can truly come into their own. Take, for instance, WMDs, a new iPhone-only comic book. I wasn't exactly sure what it was when I first downloaded it. I couldn't tell if it was a motion comic, a fully animated short, a traditional comic, or some sort of hybrid of the three. As it turns out, it's mostly like a traditional comic book, and, unfortunately, not a particularly good one.

Both issues 1.0 and 1.5 are currently available through the app store for free, so there's no harm in trying them out. What you will find is a series with some promise - the initial trailer for the series uses live action and animation to showcase the series' premise that superhumans are responsible for many of the world's great disasters and large-scale military triumphs. But once you get past the initial pomp during the opening sequences, what you're left with is a pretty standard comic book.

To be fair, the comic book reader software included with each issue/episode of WMDs is clean and simple. You are generally treated to one panel at a time, and you can pinch and zoom to get a closer look at any time. It's standard stuff for a reader these days, but it's well implemented here.

I think my expectations would have been lower, and my evaluation of this series higher, had WMDs been released as a standard comic book through an app like Comixology's Comics. Instead, the hint of animation and live action footage makes the actual comic pale in comparison. It also doesn't help that the art for WMDs, while serviceable, is sometimes scratchy and seems unfinished in places.

No doubt there will be additional episodes/issues in the WMDs series, but if the developers intend to continue presenting their story using a traditional comic book format, they might have better luck selling individual issues through another venue rather than their one-issue-per-app approach.