Why So Blu?

‘Harvest’ Reaps Organs, Confusion Too

Self described as “Medical Grade Revenge” combining elements of 100 Bullets, Dexter and ER, this dark title caught my attention very quickly. We’ve all received those foreboding emails littered with urban myths about being cautious as to whom you meet in a bar. You never know if you might wake up in a bath tub the next morning with a kidney missing as you’ve fallen victim to some mysterious black market organ trade. Harvest brings that modern legend to the pages of Image in greater detail.

Harvest is a new title from Image Comics created by writer A.J. Lieberman (Cowboy Ninja Viking) and artist Colin Lorimer that tells the tale of, well, several things at once, I think.  Here’s the skinny.  Issue #1 just came out.  I read it.  The artwork is very dark and dreary; attributes extremely befitting of the story at hand.  However, it’s the story at hand that I just can’t wrap my brain around.  Yes I know it’s only issue 1.  With that being said, I really don’t have a solid grasp on characters and what’s exactly going on.

I can tell you this much.  There’s a certain surgeon who falls on hard times and finds himself working for the Yakuza (Japanese mafia) who in turn control underground organ harvesting.  My confusion came with the characters, some of which who are drawn so similarly, I thought they were the same person, only to find out through dialogue that they’re not.  There’s potential in here for a really good story, and again, this is only the first issue so there’s time for that to develop.  It’s the lack of solid establishment of the players here that has me scratching my head.

When the issue was over, I was in a slight form of disbelief thinking there had to be more.  In one panel, the questionable surgeon is tasked with an impromptu operation on a quickly fading young woman.  What should be a progression of that surgery in the next few panels actually ends up with the surgeon crashed on the floor in a crummy apartment.  What happened in between?  How’d the surgery go?  Did it even happen?  Was it a hallucination?  Who knows?  All I know is this critic is a little frustrated.  Harvest‘s debut was jumpy and lacked focus.  I am on the fence about giving issue #2 the time of day when it arrives.  Like I said, there’s a wicked story waiting to happen here, the creative team just need to get their ducks in a row for that to happen.

Overall: