Tom Morello, for the uninitiated, severely young, severely old, and desperately out-of-touch, was... no, Wikipedia insists I say, "is" the guitarist for Rage Against the Machine. He made/makes skritchy noises and broke lots of guitar strings, and because of that we loved him and sort of forgave him for being in Audioslave. Yes, history is important, spit out your gum. Since Rage and 'Slave (also the name of my favorite gentlemen's club) aren't making albums anymore, and since nobody knows who The Nightwatchman are, Tom has combined efforts with Scott Hepburn (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Dr. Horrible and Other Horrible Stories) to try something pretty clever. On one end of the marketing stick, Tom and Scott are making comic books, and, on the other, Tom and The Nightwatchman are releasing a song for each issue of Orchid that comes out. It isn't unheard of for things like this to happen- as a really good example, I, Lucifer by Glen Duncan advertizes its own soundtrack by The Real Tuesday Weld in the back pages. I've never heard this done for a comic book before, however, and it will doubtless bolster sales on both sides. Hey, I didn't know Tom Morello had another band until I picked up Orchid, so it's getting the info out there.
(Don't jump at the discography yet, though. It's okay. It's not great. Then again, I don't understand any of what you kids are listening to these days, so I'll post the official link at the bottom. Or you can look up "It Begins Tonight" on YouTube.)
That being said, these books turned out mediocre. Tom Morello, as a first-time comics writer, has a nice grasp on what people who pick up a comic book by Tom Morello want to see. Dystopian future, sword beheading, teenaged hookers, a downtrodden slave class... scorpion bears... okay, I'm not gonna shit on scorpion bears. My point is this- though the elements are there; the construction and execution make the work feel self-indulgent. Yes, one of the protagonists is a teenaged hooker, and that's edgy and everything, but so what? There are some neat concepts here, but very little depth or character development. It's fluff, and it's not very good fluff, but it isn't bad fluff, either. Disappointing fluff. Also, the dialogue is pretty uninspired, though the less cynical among you could chalk that up to it occurring in a universe where mankind has largely forgotten how to read. I went into this really looking forward to it and wanting to like it. I still sing Rage songs in the shower. I hope it gets better.
By the bye, Massimo Carnevale has always and continues to produce stunning cover art. Don't judge this book by it.
The Nightwatchman's Orchid musical score can be found at http://nightwatchmanmusic.com/
Check out some Massimo Carnevale at http://sketchesnatched.blogspot.com/
Also, for kicks, if you haven't read I, Lucifer, check out http://www.amazon.com/Lucifer-Finally-Other-Side-Story/dp//ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320992797&sr=8-1 and then buy the heck out of it.
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