Ev

Ev is a Comic that begins with a forward explaining that the story that is to follow was the result of taking one writer’s idea, giving it to another writer, and then letting him run with it. Of course, reading this note (or not reading it) shouldn’t alter anyone’s enjoyment of the Comic. But reading it will explain to the reader why the story completely changes style and pace part-way through.

Or to sum up briefly, Ev is a story of two parts.

The first part tells of aliens making first contact with Earth. It’s by far the shorter of the two but also definitely the most interesting, possibly due to the fact that the writer put a little bit of thought into thinking, "what if...".

The story also features a touching little tale about America’s top scientist trying to balance the demands of his job (quite high since the aliens appeared) against his family life, and later choosing whether to accept his daughter’s death in a traffic accident or to misappropriate technology from the US government in order to try and save his daughter’s life.

The second part of the story is set on an alien world, and is pure sci-fi.

It features things from a long list of sci-fi standards, such as: Artifacts and machines left from a long-dead alien race; warp-gates that teleport ships long distances across the universe; a large parliament made up of embassies from different systems; and an ancient evil trying to destroy the universe.

All of these elements would make for a interesting story... if they hadn’t already been used about 5 times over by more interesting stories such as Star Wars and Mass Effect. As most of the plot points that come up have all been done before, and done better, the second part seems a little pointless and uninspiring.

Maybe I’m being unfair. Maybe there are a lot of people out there who will enjoy the intergalactic bit of the Manga. But personally I felt it was a little tacked on.

Ev is clearly marked as Volume 1, and thanks to a twist at the end there is room for a volume 2. But perverse as it may seem, I’m almost hoping that the series stops where it is. Despite all of my complains about the second part volume 1 is still a perfectly readable story, and a decent recommendation for someone who wanted a short Comic to read. But the way it’s going I just don’t see the story being very good in future volumes.