“UTENSILS DOWN, HANDS UP! WELCOME TO STARVE! Once the world’s most famous chef, Gavin Cruikshank’s been in a self-imposed exile for years. His little foodie television program has since evolved into STARVE, an arena sport that pits chef against chef for the pleasure of their super-rich patrons. It’s a stain on a once-noble profession, and Chef Gavin is ready to go to war to stop it. Two things stand in his way: his arch rival Roman Algiers, and his adult daughter Angie, who probably just wants her dad back and acting normal.”
I’m not a fan of cooking shows or people discussing food or reality TV shows so I’m not sure what got me interested in this. I do like dystopian stories though so it must have been that they found a new angle to do that from. I’m done with young adult dystopian movies. Both Divergent and The Maze Runner are terrible and The Hunger Games ended on a disappointing note.
This first issue is all set up showing you who Gavin is and what he’s up against. He’s not your typical good hero going up against the corrupt government though. He’s not going to take them down for purely unselfish reasons and he doesn’t care if people get hurt in the process. In other words this is not young adult dystopia.
Despite all the exposition going on none of it feels rushed and it kept my attention. It’s a whole lot of good hooks that make me want to know more. Why Gavin stayed away in his self imposed exile? What happened with his wife? How the world got in this state? They’re only a few of the questions that are raised.
It’s a very timely comic being all about the 1% and criminal excess. The rich feel under siege while the poor (99.9% of the population) starve. It’s our current situation pushed to the extreme and it didn’t get preachy but that’s going to be a fine line to walk. I can imagine some people might find this a bit too heavy handed. But I didn’t find it to be too in your face because it just arises naturally from the setting and it’s only mentioned once in the narration by Gavin.
I’m not usually a fan of narration in comics either (it can get melodramatic quite quickly) but this works for me. It’s Gavin telling his story and he’s an interesting character. He lived in self imposed exile and lived his own little life of excess (all the drugs) just at no one else’s expense.
His wife left him when she found out he’s queer (I think I read he’s bisexual). She makes it sound like that’s the only reason she left him but she’s being really vindictive about everything. She wants to keep him from his daughter and take all his money. I wonder what he did for her to find out because it looks like they were married for about 20 years.
The cover is a good representation of the art inside so if you don’t like the cover you’re not going to like what’s inside. I like the cover and while it’s not my favourite style of art it suits the comic.
It’s a good issue that makes me excited for the rest of the series and a fresh take on dystopia. Recently we’ve just had so many heroes go up against corrupt government but this guy doesn’t feel like a hero. He wants everything back and as he says he’s going to burn it all down.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Next Review: Starve #2
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