Review — ‘Witness Point’ #1 Battles Too Many Competing Elements
by Tom Smithyman
Witness Point is what you get when you blend modern noir with conspiracy theories then throw in circus life for good measure. In other words, it’s just too much.
The new limited series, based on a idea from Nathan Fillion (yes, that Nathan Fillion) and writer Heath Corson, centers on the town of Baraboo, Wisconsin. Baraboo is known in law enforcement circles as Witness Point, because a lazy midwestern U.S. marshal wanted all the members of his witness protection program within an easy drive from Chicago.
Local sheriff Kite Calhoon is aware his town has some witnesses but is flabbergasted when he discovers the true scope. Add in an apparent assistant marshal who starts asking questions and then ends up dead — naked, beheaded, and behanded on the sidewalk. (Well, the script says the corpse is naked, but in the panel, the corpse is wearing boxers.) It’s a lot of the small town.
But it’s not all Kite has to deal with. After all, Baraboo is also the winter home for a traveling circus. So in the middle of a murder investigation, clowns will start honking their horns at him. The clowns’ appearance is so outlandish that at first it seems like a fantasy that the sheriff is having. Alas, it’s not the case. And, of course, the circus has a tiger, which escapes. The creators wisely made this first issue oversized, to fit everything into a single package. But there’s plenty more coming in remaining three issues.
If this sounds like a lot, it really is. What may be the oddest choice though — and these choices are all odd, to be clear — is Corson’s decision to make Kite a noirish character. While set in modern times, Kite speaks as if it’s the 1930s or 40s. The telephone is a blower. He complains that the situation doesn’t make a lick of sense. And it’s all narrated like a gumshoe in a Humphrey Bogart film.
Yet Soo Lee’s fairly bright colors don’t mesh with that tone. Lee, who also illustrates the series, gives us distinct characters (though her tiger could use some refinement). But it doesn’t look like a noir story.
The creators are clearly going for quirk here, but it’s difficult to pull off in a comic book. It would likely work better on a television series where the whole town is wacky. Here, though, it feels like too many different elements that never really come together and get in the way of an interesting premise.
Witness Point #1 — written by Heath Corson, illustrated and colored by Soo Lee, and lettered by Joshua Reed — is now available in comic book stores and on digital platforms from Dark Horse.
Overview
Quirky can be fun. But too many competing elements just comes off as unnecessarily weird in this limited series’ first issue. Instead of capitalizing on an interesting concept — a midwestern town that’s home to dozens of witness protection members — it buries the story in clowns, tigers, and circuses. (Oh my!)
