24: One Shot

Rating:
Summary: Time Constraints
Review: As a loyal viewer of the real time action drama 24, I was more than a bit curious to see how the format would translate for an original story, between the pages of a book.

It's obvious that authors J. C. Vaughn and Mark L. Haynes are familiar with the show's past, bringing back elements and familiar characters from season one, while also giving us glimpses into what makes Jack Bauer the kind of man he is in the series. The story has Baur put in charge of protecting a terrorist, who has secrets the bad guys want kept secret, from an assasins bullet. The attention to the smallest details is appreciated and the story is pretty good. The photorealistic art by Renato Guedes captures the familiar characters and the CTU offices very well too. The concept of 24 and the real time element is lost though and should have been dropped. There's no way that sense of urgancy can be duplicated in a book, no matter how exciting, or brief the story is--and at 52 pages--it is brief. As a live action series--that sense of "right now" is lost in a book. The cliffhanger ending means there will be more of these, if this proves popular enough--but they should lose the need to incorporate the time clock as much as they did.

Viewers of 24 should still check out the book though.

Rating:
Summary: Not too bad for what it is
Review: I picked this comic up at the Baltimore comic-con this past fall. I am a huge fan of the show and the characters. The comic was good, but as I am sure others have said, rushed. The art was unique and the writing was good, but having a whole day in one comic is too much. It would take a long time, but the best way to do a 24 comic is to have one storyline take 24 issues, one hour an issue. Still a good read, I reccomend it to any fan of the show.

Rating:
Summary: For "24" Fans Only
Review: If you're a "24" fan, you'll want to have this, if only for the sake of having it. If you're not a fan of the show, it probably won't mean as much to you because you won't know who the characters are. I'm not a fan of the photorealistic art and at times it can be a little funky and distracting. But the story is actually not bad and the writers do have a good grasp of the characters from the show's first season. It's good to see Walsh, Jamie and the old gang back in action. The story also does a good job of capturing the history of Jack, giving us small glimpses into his past without revealing too much. However, the book tries too hard to capture the time element of the show, that they could have just skipped. There's a bit of a cliffhanger ending (which will not surprise "24" fans) which leads me to believe this one shot will not be the only shot.