Comic Review: gen:LOCK “the:END Part 2”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

gen:LOCK team finishes off Sycorax in the Shogunate (which apparently was a Combiner?), they make amends with the Japanese Polity, Yaz takes on more of a leadership role in the team, Kazu and Val possibly get together(?), and Cammie makes Chase a program to spend some relaxing time in while she waits for the new Siege game. The end. See ya in Season 2 whenever that comes out!

OUR TAKE

This series had a bit of a rough task on its hands, being a self-contained story that seems to be about providing connective tissue for what will likely be noticeable off-screen character developments we may see when the show comes back, such as Yaz becoming the true de factor leader and Kazu and Val’s possibly budding romance. But then we have the stuff that I would bet real money we will NEVER see mentioned or referenced ever again, like Sycorax, the Japanese Polity, or CHASE GOING TRAITOR if ever so briefly. I say this because, unlike the stuff mentioned before, none of the things I expect to be omitted are small enough to introduce in the show with no previous context. It’s because of those things, along with a few other continuity flubs throughout the issues like the year it takes place, that I don’t think this comic is ever going to be considered actual canon.

Going back through these fourteen chapters, I can appreciate that the writers gave just about each character something to do over the course of the story. Chase has his conflict with Sycorax, Cammie has her Siege “addiction” and following investigation to save Chase, Yaz comes around to taking more charge, and Kazu has his issues with his family and returning to his former home (and I guess you could say Val sort of acted as Kazu’s love interest or support throughout this? But even that is a bit of a stretch). Problem is, most of these are only sporadically touched on, with Yaz’s problem only really coming up around the beginning and end of the series, Cammie’s so called addiction never quite ends up being portrayed in any harmful way, Kazu’s problems seem to just suddenly get resolved with no clear resolution, and while Chase’s thing with Sycorax is shown throughout, the issues that drive him to betray the team still feel like they came out of left field.

In the end, this stint in having the show in comic form is a pretty mixed bag, much like with the recently finished run of RWBY comics. The art is quite weird at times, the continuity fumbles too much to not notice, and the medium just doesn’t really allow the best aspects from the series to truly shine, most notably the action. Because of all of these problems, I have to say that this series will probably just be for people who are desperate for anything relating to gen:LOCK…which likely includes the majority of the fanbase, considering that we haven’t yet gotten a release date for the next season. There’s also apparently a novel coming out that’s from Cammie’s perspective, though the fact that it just plopped onto Amazon one day with no formal announcement doesn’t say much that’s good. Either way, for a g:L fan, these comics are for you, but probably not for many people other than that.