MURDER IN KEY OF MYSTERY (AMENDED SCORE AND THOUGHTS)
Charlamagne tha God's presents a new murder, music book ILLUMINATI
Illuminati is a music murder mystery brought to us by Charlamagne tha God and AWA studios. CTG and AWA studios assembled a team of industry veterans to help tell this narrative with writer Bryan Edward Hill (Ultimate Black Panther), artist Denys Cowan ( Hardware, The Question), inker Bill Sienkiewicz (New mutants, Moon Knight) with the standard cover (an homage to DMX’s second album) by Keron Grant (Iron Man, Green Lantern) and a Kickstarter exclusive cover by Sanford Greene( Bitter Root, Black Hammer).
Bryan Hill starts the story from a typical perspective of Lilly discussing the very recent death of her sister Jackie with what appears to be a therapist. He uses the opening to set the overall tone of the issue which can be summed up as follows, “ALL THAT GLITTERS, AIN’T GOLD!” He shows this by having Lilly lament how she, herself never wanted to come out to LA, that it was her sister Jackie's dream, and that the city changed her sister. She espouses how they found her and inevitably what they found in her system.
Denys Cowan’s pencils do a fine job of expressing the mental toll this takes on Lilly after leaving the therapist office. He delivers several panels showing Lilly's connection to her sister with music in both the past and present.
It is a little unclear if somewhere in this montage as to when Lilly falls asleep but either way she envisions her dead sister. Before waking Jakie warns Lilly to be careful and that all is not as it seems (paraphrasing). The vision understandably startles Lilly which sends seeking alcohol and upon returning to her room she is met with a mysterious black envelope. The envelope contains a letter with a mysterious message and phone number to call to arrange a meeting. Upon arriving at a luxurious home, she is met by slick suit wearing man named Damien.
Lilly intuitively feels that something is off shortly after the meeting and runs for the door. Damien’s sinister words and actions reaffirm to the reader that Jackie’s warning holds true. Later while drinking at a bar Lilly is approached by a Val Kilmer looking man who also seemed to know her sister. He explains that he warned Jackie of what would happen and urges Lilly to leave the city.
It is during this conversation that Jackie appears before Lilly again and urges to trust this man who has not yet been named. It is at this point that Lilly decides that she wants to uncover what happened and stop her sister's killers.
Overall Illuminati is a murder mystery limited series that isn’t very dense from the onset. That could easily change as the story progresses. It has solid pencils from Denys Cowan that deliver a consistent feel and tone. Bryan Edward Hill’s script delivers the necessary notes for this introductory issue of this series that looks to not only solve a murder but uncover the seedy underbelly of this world's music industry. As well as the secret society that apparently controls it.
The Good: Solid story and art that clearly convey the story done by a team of well-known industry professionals with a long list of accomplishments.
The Bad: The dream sequence is a little off as it isn’t quite sure when Lilly falls asleep. As it is it would be easier to display in live action than in the way it is in the book.
My score: 8.0/10
AMENDED SCORE AND THOUGHTS:
After serious discussion, rereads, and thoughts, I’ve chosen to amend the score on this book. My reasonings are thus:
In comics (and storytelling as a whole) there is such a thing called “Compression and Decompression.” This story suffers from the former. While I understood the overall time of events the average reader might not have understood just how much time has passed during the story. So, time headers would’ve benefited this story for narration purposes. Also, characters could’ve been fleshed out a little more mainly the lead and her sister’s relationship. This would have allowed for a little more emotional depth between the two. The story is compressed in a way that the amount of overall character depth (for all characters) given is better suited for live action rather than comics. Even then that still might be too compressed depending on medium of viewing (i.e. tv, streaming, or movie). It even doesn’t allow for certain events to settle and resonate. It does feel as if certain scenes are rushed through a bit. The level of compression that the story has contributes to it be a quick read and a major part the reason why this issue is not a dense read.
AMENDED SCORE: 6.5/10