Raphael Bad Mood Rising #1 (Review)

Story: Bill Moulage
Pencils: Jim Lawson
Inks and Letters: Eric Talbot
Cover: Ross Campbell
Release: July 2007

The first official Raphael solo title since his microseries way back in Volume 1. Will it be as memorable and introduce us to classic characters? Not so much. These new miniseries that Mirage released were for the most part fairly forgettable. The Raphael series and the Michelangelo series didn't really follow up on any interesting stories like the Leonardo and Donatello series did. This story follows up on Tales Vol. 2 #7, and I don't think many people were demanding that story get continued.

The issue opens up in North Hampton where Raph and Shadow are watching The Exorcist. Good flick, but what's really jarring is that a still from the movie is shown in the comic in the middle of Jim Lawson's art. The issue is only on the third page and something weird has already taken me right out of the story.

Raph gets a beer and we continue in read dialogue from The Exorcist. This movie watching goes on for a bit too long, 6 whole pages. When the comic is only 28 pages long, using 6 to take dialogue from a movie is a lot. The doorbell rings and Raph opens the door to find Lulu, the cute-as-a-button little girl who I bet has more to her than meets the eye! (Spoiler: She does!) Lulu asks for help finding her mother, which Raph and Shadow agree to do. Lulu then asks if her dog can come in, but hey, it's a werewolf. Not just any werewolf, but  Sloane, a character from Tales #7.

Raph agrees for the second time that he will help find Lulu's mother, who turns out to be another werewolf. He can't have his brothers help though because that story is "in a tale as-yet untold". I hate it when Mirage did this. Foreshadowing is one thing, but confusing the readers by teasing a story that has not been written yet, but has already happened in the timeline is frigging annoying. Tales biggest flaw was how much the narrative jumped all over the place and how long stories would take to get a conclusion. Crap like this does not help.

We then see Raph get decked out in gear to fight the supernatural. This outfit was first seen in Tales Vol. 2 #3 where Raph is saying "Let me tell you a story". That issue came out three years prior to this miniseries. While I doubt things were planned out that far in advance, it's neat to see it come back around.

Lulu then teleports everyone to a different dimension that exists in the shadows of our world. The rest of the issue consists of everyone riding on giant bats, being chased by demons that eat your soul. I really like the creature designs of the soul-eaters. They're a mix of lizard, dinosaur, and have a giant eyeball for a head. The issue ends with them getting surrounded with no obvious way to escape.

This is not a terrible issue, but it's not very good either. The pacing is poor, the beginning spends too much time watching a movie and the end spends too much time just flying on bats. The middle is really the part that moves the plot forward. I also really miss Casey in this series. It feels like all good Raphael stories have Casey in them, and Shadow is a poor substitute.

2/5