A review by siskoid
The Matrix Comics, Vol. 1 by Troy Nixey, Ryder Windham, Geof Darrow, Lana Wachowski, Gregory Ruth, Paul Chadwick, Bill Sienkiewicz, Kilian Plunkett, Peter Bagge, Neil Gaiman, Dave Gibbons, David Lapham, John Van Fleet, Spencer Lamm, Ted McKeever, Lilly Wachowski

3.0

The first volume of The Matrix Comics (originally published online, because of course), doesn't start on the right foot for me. Though there are some big name artists doing the early stories, they are too short and/or retread material we've seen too many time already across the whole of the franchise. From Neil Gaiman's prose story on, however, things get a lot better, more varied and more creative. Gaiman colors way outside the box, which is what I would have liked to see more of. In fact, whenever it's hackers fighting agents, it's a little dull. But given the talent (surprisingly) involved, there's more on offer, like Peter Bagge doing a metatextual comedy skit, Paul Chadwick riffing on Chaucer and producing one of the best stories in the collection as a result, and David Lapham essentially giving us a Matrix-inspired Stray Bullets story. Overall, more good stories than boring ones, even if it takes 50 pages before the quality rises.