Weapons of the Metabaron Hardcover – December 6, 2016

It was quite a wait for this graphic novel, and while I'm glad to have finally gotten a look at it, it's largely a disappointment. Way back in 2000, it was announced that Travis Charest had been commissioned to do the art for Jodorowsky's latest Metabaron book. Then--silence for several years (I've forgotten exactly how long and can't seem to find the number anywhere; but--several years) followed by another announcement that in that time Charest had completed only about half the book, and the publisher had relieved him of the project and was having the remainder done by Zoran Janjetov, who had worked with author Alexandro Jodorowsky on other things. Then--from the American perspective--several more years passed; I eventually noticed that the French-language edition was out, but I wasn't going to pay euro prices plus overseas postage for a book I couldn't read all that well, so...more waiting. Finally, eleven years on, we have the English edition.By my count the book has 29 pages of Charest art, plus a splash-page montage at the back, and the cover; and 26 pages of art by Janjetov. Both artists are credited for pages 39 to 60, although page 39 appears to be all Charest, and pages 40-60 appear to be all Janjetov; maybe Charest had done the layouts? (The page count and page numbers don't match up because the story starts on page 7.) It looks as though the story was tweaked to make Charest's pages a dream-flashback; Janjetov does a four-page introductory episode and finishes out the book.The two artists' styles don't complement one another. Janjetov's is competent but fairly conventional, and colored in a more or less standard European style. Charest's art is painted, highly detailed, almost photo-realistic in places, and colored from a much different palette. Janjetov's Metabaron looks years older than Charest's, though they're the same character in the same timeframe. In some places Charest's art reminds me of Richard Corben's-- maybe it's just the shadowing on some of the faces at first, combined with the fact that, like Corben's Den, the Metabaron is bald? Or maybe it's partly due to the thought that Charest may have taken away Corben's one-time unofficial title and reputation as "world's slowest comics artist"...I suppose the story deserves some attention. Um--well: the Metabaron is tasked by the eight intra-sleepers of the Omphal to acquire Praxis, the sword with a soul, with which he can capture the Omnigraal, because he'll need those, along with his own endotronics, mecha-technics and various models of oko-bombs, to defeat the Transpineal Eye, a renegade mini-computer, and the vile Hulzgeminis who threaten the eight universes, and ... it doesn't really matter. Jodorowsky's story is an odd amalgam of science fiction, myth, dream and Saturday morning cartoon. The Metabaron is the undefeatable warrior, his sentient metacraft cannot fail, and with Praxis, he's equipped with, basically, a magic sword, so there's little suspense. The one episode that engages some emotion comes early on, when the young Metabaron must demonstrate that he has mastered his training by fighting and killing his "father-mother" predecessor (which seems like a rather wasteful tradition).The big attraction here is Charest's art (and that's not just my opinion--look at the cover; Charest's name is printed at the top and larger than the other two contributors' names together). Even though Charest's pages are very, very good in some ways, they're vaguely disappointing, too. The art seems dark, and the figures in many of the panels too small. I think I picked up a clue to why this is from pages 2-3 of the book. This is one of Charest's panels--the last one he completed, actually--enlarged to a double-page splash. A background pattern/texture, the same used on the book's cover, has been added, which is one reason it took me a while to register what I was seeing. And what one sees when one studies this enlarged panel is a level of detail, a subtlety of color, shading and modeling that's simply not visible in the smaller-size version on page 39. The same is true to a lesser degree of pages 4-5, another panel enlarged to a double-page spread. If Charest put that much effort and detail into most or many of the rest of his panels, one can begin to understand how the project could take him so long, and it begins to explain my vague feeling of dissatisfaction with many of the beautifully-rendered pages--Charest's art is simply printed too small for the reader to get the full effect of the craft and effort that went into it. His pages would look much, much better at twice the size, or at least in an oversized format like, say, Barry Smith's "Storyteller". However, I can see why the publisher wouldn't have wanted to do that; at that size, Janjetov's pages would likely look stark and over-simple. The differences between the two art styles mean one or the other has to be presented in a disadvantageous format, and it was Charest's pages that got the short end of the stick.This could have been a comics milestone. Instead, it's been reduced to a footnote, recording a disappointment. Oh well.

Travis Charest and Zoran Janjetov's artwork is servicable, but this Jodorowsky work feels like something solely for the Incel/Metabaron completist. Telling the story of the last Metabaron's transition to his caste and title, it mainly is four McGuffins in space. This work thus is good for backstory but not as interesting as either the Metabaron or Incel adventures.

When I was purchasing this book I was hoping that the reviews for it were a little harsh but it seems to me that it is true and the only decent thing about this book is the art. The story is not very exciting and the book itself is very short. However it was still good enough for me to not hate it. I really love the Metabarons book and its nice to have another book about the Metabarons. I just wish Jodoworsky would have tried a little harder on the story. If your a fan of The Metabarons I think it is still worth the purchase

Nice humanoids book. But really unnecessary as a metabaron story.

A simple short story about how the Metabaron got his 4 weapons.The most interesting part is of course how it parallels myths and religion origin stories.

Why haven't the Metabarons hasn't made it to the big screen is beyond me. I believe the Metabarons would be the next great space saga if someone would pick it up.

Let me just say that I am a big Travis Charest fan. His artwork is fantastic as usual. Unfortunately he is very slow and did not complete all of the interiors which detracts from the overall package. I'm not familiar with the Metabaron (s) so I really had no idea what to expect from the storyline. The story wasn't the worst thing I've ever read but the dialogue was weak throughout. Maybe the translation to English was poor. Anyway, its a shame to see such a spectacular artist put so much time into something that is so forgettable. If you're a Charest fan I would recommend you borrow this to see the art, reading it is optional.

I think that there may have been a dust jacket with it, but it didn't come with it. If not no bigee. It was in perfect shape.

I bought this on the strength of Travis Charest artwork and was not disappointed.Regrettably, Charest art is not throughout the entire book but there is enough to satisfy.The plot is another chunk of the Metabarons' galactic saga and the reader will either be into this or not as it is now a well-established narrative from Jodorosky.

The story consept is good but somewhat feels kind of "incomplete" as everything happens fast.Wish it had more pages.

This book requires multiple ratings. Travis Charest's art is the primary selling point and deserves at least 4 stars. The rest of the art by Janjetov is ok, but doesn't stand out in my opinion. The story: 1 star. Total nonsense with a magic sword can essentially do anything, which includes eliminating any tension or character growth. The original Metabaron series started out with a great story, with equally great art, but gradually descended into a series of stories that became more and more bizarre, setting up the Metabaron as some invincible killing machine. It's a shame that Charest couldn't have finished the story (which appears to be only part 1, as the sword still has challenges to magically overcome).

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