All-Ages Reviews: Ratchet and Clank
Licensed versions of pretty much anything are going to be a mixed bag. Most often, fans of the original expect very little out of licensed work - movies based on video games or video games based on movies are largely both considered likely to be terrible right off the bat. But what about a comic based on a video game?
“Ratchet and Clank” is a sci-fi video game series for the playstation systems featuring a fuzzy lombax named Ratchet and his robotic sidekick Clank. They’re space mechanics who fight to save the world in their spare time. This simple premise is all you need to make some fun games, as it opens up a lot of different adventures for our main characters to go on. T.J. Fixman and Adam Archer thought it was ripe ground for story telling and so did a six issue comic mini series for the games following our intrepid duo on a new adventure! - "Ratchet and Clank: Insert Subtitle Here"!
Now I’ve only played one Ratchet and Clank game myself, and I admittedly never finished it. That wasn’t because I disliked it though - it was a lot of fun! And I keep meaning to go back to it - I’m just one of those who rarely finishes games she plays. But it meant I went into the series at least vaguely aware of who all the characters were and the basic setup, but without very detailed knowledge. On the one hand, this was good, because the comic takes place after at least a few of the games, so I wasn’t coming in blind. On the other hand, I’m not really sure it was entirely necessary, We’re given enough of the characters that we know who they are and what their relationships are even if we don’t know their entire history. We don’t need to know everything about how they met up and what they went through together to know that Ratchet and Clank are best buds. There are a couple of characters who are a little confusing if you aren’t already familiar with them, but it never gets to the point where it makes the story hard to follow.
Some things are universal, afterall.
From what I remember of the games (and admittedly, I only played one and it has been a while) there wasn’t a lot of talking anyway, so the writers were pretty free to develop the voices for even the title characters. The only one who felt pretty set in stone was Captain Quark and he pretty much reads how I remember him, a mostly well-meaning, but often ignorant, arrogant jerk.
The characters are all handled pretty well in this. I like Ratchet’s character as a pretty straightforward good guy, but with just enough snark so that he doesn’t end up being bland. Clank could use a little more characterization I think, but his relationship with Ratchet is more than enough to keep me interested.
A typical Tuesday, really...
The villain was also very good in this. He reminded me a bit of Frost from the Gimoles in his design, but unlike that character, who was evil for the pettiest of reasons, Zogg is actually pretty sympathetic. Don’t get me wrong, he goes way too far, his revenge is pretty disproportionate to the crimes done to him, but we can understand his anger and frustration. Really, he’s the ideal villain, sympathetic enough for us to understand his side, but bad enough that we still want to see the heroes take him down.
Also this guy...
There’s plenty of other great characters in this, too, I don’t want to list them all because we’d be here all day, but the writers did a very good job on characterization. Is it the best I’ve ever seen? No, probably not, but it’s very solidly done. While there aren’t a lot that are outstanding, there also aren’t really any missteps, so it’s fun to follow all these characters - good and bad - through the story.
Destructive AND awesome!
Story-wise this is paced almost exactly opposite A Skeleton Story - where that series was slow, meandering and atmospheric, I’m amazed at how dense Ratchet and Clank ends up being. As with A Skeleton Story, this isn’t a bad thing, it’s just a different style, but having read the two so close together, it’s amazing at how different they can be when they’re the same number of issues.
A high ratio of death threats per issue, for example.
Each individual issue of Ratchet and Clank seems to want to make sure it delivers plenty of space battle scenes, quips, and story development. Each one has a different setting and focus and I can’t believe that they crammed it all in when I think back on it, but it doesn’t read as forced or rushed when you’re reading. There’s a lot it gets through, but it’s easy to follow and understand, even when they’re throwing their made-up alien/planet/currency names at you every five seconds.
Nah, it's much funnier to just see what happens...
I’m actually pretty impressed with the humor in this as well. I wouldn’t say it’s laugh-out-loud funny, but the jokes are amusing for the most part and you never start getting annoyed at the character’s quips. They seem to come in at more or less the right moments and they keep things light. Alongside the humor, however, there’s some great quiet moments in this. The emotion of the characters feels very real, and never seems over-the-top or forced in for some cheap angst.
This wasn't one of those moments.
On the art, I have to confess that I was a little disappointed in it the first time I read this, and I feel so bad about that because it sounds like I’m saying it’s bad or I didn’t like it when that’s not true at all. The problem is just that the cover art for the individual issues is pretty much exactly what I like in terms of art, the right sort of stylized cartoony flavor, so when I opened the book and saw that the actual comic wasn’t like that, yeah, I did feel a bit let down. BUT! Once I got used to it, I realized that the interior art is actually very good. The characters are very expressive and full of energy and motion.
I kind of love this guy...
You can tell who’s who and what’s happening even in the midst of hugely chaotic space gun fights. The world is well fleshed out and each place they go to has it’s own unique atmosphere to it. There’s humor and story telling in the art as well as writing, and that’s as it should be. If anything, this is a pretty big indicator of the interior art’s quality, if it’s not really the sort of style that I like the best and yet I’m singing its praises this much.
What made you think it would?
It may sound like I’m being too easy on this one, or that I’m overly enthusiastic in my praise of it, but I don’t really think this is the greatest comic ever made. The reason I speak so highly of everything is that I really don’t think there’s any part of this comic that’s done poorly. It’s nothing ground-breaking or anything, it’s not going to change your world view and while I can’t think of any real glaring problems with it, I also don’t really think it does much amazingly well either, but that doesn’t put it into the “mediocre” category. Without any major screw-ups, this book just plain fun to read from start to finish. It’s an excellent silly space adventure. It’s just all around good and something I’d definitely recommend for anyone for a fun read if you happen to come across the collected edition anywhere.
...And now I really need to get back into that game...
Next time we'll take a look at the ongoing Marvel adaptions of Baum's Oz books!
“Ratchet and Clank” is a sci-fi video game series for the playstation systems featuring a fuzzy lombax named Ratchet and his robotic sidekick Clank. They’re space mechanics who fight to save the world in their spare time. This simple premise is all you need to make some fun games, as it opens up a lot of different adventures for our main characters to go on. T.J. Fixman and Adam Archer thought it was ripe ground for story telling and so did a six issue comic mini series for the games following our intrepid duo on a new adventure! - "Ratchet and Clank: Insert Subtitle Here"!
Now I’ve only played one Ratchet and Clank game myself, and I admittedly never finished it. That wasn’t because I disliked it though - it was a lot of fun! And I keep meaning to go back to it - I’m just one of those who rarely finishes games she plays. But it meant I went into the series at least vaguely aware of who all the characters were and the basic setup, but without very detailed knowledge. On the one hand, this was good, because the comic takes place after at least a few of the games, so I wasn’t coming in blind. On the other hand, I’m not really sure it was entirely necessary, We’re given enough of the characters that we know who they are and what their relationships are even if we don’t know their entire history. We don’t need to know everything about how they met up and what they went through together to know that Ratchet and Clank are best buds. There are a couple of characters who are a little confusing if you aren’t already familiar with them, but it never gets to the point where it makes the story hard to follow.
Some things are universal, afterall.
From what I remember of the games (and admittedly, I only played one and it has been a while) there wasn’t a lot of talking anyway, so the writers were pretty free to develop the voices for even the title characters. The only one who felt pretty set in stone was Captain Quark and he pretty much reads how I remember him, a mostly well-meaning, but often ignorant, arrogant jerk.
The characters are all handled pretty well in this. I like Ratchet’s character as a pretty straightforward good guy, but with just enough snark so that he doesn’t end up being bland. Clank could use a little more characterization I think, but his relationship with Ratchet is more than enough to keep me interested.
A typical Tuesday, really...
The villain was also very good in this. He reminded me a bit of Frost from the Gimoles in his design, but unlike that character, who was evil for the pettiest of reasons, Zogg is actually pretty sympathetic. Don’t get me wrong, he goes way too far, his revenge is pretty disproportionate to the crimes done to him, but we can understand his anger and frustration. Really, he’s the ideal villain, sympathetic enough for us to understand his side, but bad enough that we still want to see the heroes take him down.
Also this guy...
There’s plenty of other great characters in this, too, I don’t want to list them all because we’d be here all day, but the writers did a very good job on characterization. Is it the best I’ve ever seen? No, probably not, but it’s very solidly done. While there aren’t a lot that are outstanding, there also aren’t really any missteps, so it’s fun to follow all these characters - good and bad - through the story.
Destructive AND awesome!
Story-wise this is paced almost exactly opposite A Skeleton Story - where that series was slow, meandering and atmospheric, I’m amazed at how dense Ratchet and Clank ends up being. As with A Skeleton Story, this isn’t a bad thing, it’s just a different style, but having read the two so close together, it’s amazing at how different they can be when they’re the same number of issues.
A high ratio of death threats per issue, for example.
Each individual issue of Ratchet and Clank seems to want to make sure it delivers plenty of space battle scenes, quips, and story development. Each one has a different setting and focus and I can’t believe that they crammed it all in when I think back on it, but it doesn’t read as forced or rushed when you’re reading. There’s a lot it gets through, but it’s easy to follow and understand, even when they’re throwing their made-up alien/planet/currency names at you every five seconds.
Nah, it's much funnier to just see what happens...
I’m actually pretty impressed with the humor in this as well. I wouldn’t say it’s laugh-out-loud funny, but the jokes are amusing for the most part and you never start getting annoyed at the character’s quips. They seem to come in at more or less the right moments and they keep things light. Alongside the humor, however, there’s some great quiet moments in this. The emotion of the characters feels very real, and never seems over-the-top or forced in for some cheap angst.
This wasn't one of those moments.
On the art, I have to confess that I was a little disappointed in it the first time I read this, and I feel so bad about that because it sounds like I’m saying it’s bad or I didn’t like it when that’s not true at all. The problem is just that the cover art for the individual issues is pretty much exactly what I like in terms of art, the right sort of stylized cartoony flavor, so when I opened the book and saw that the actual comic wasn’t like that, yeah, I did feel a bit let down. BUT! Once I got used to it, I realized that the interior art is actually very good. The characters are very expressive and full of energy and motion.
I kind of love this guy...
You can tell who’s who and what’s happening even in the midst of hugely chaotic space gun fights. The world is well fleshed out and each place they go to has it’s own unique atmosphere to it. There’s humor and story telling in the art as well as writing, and that’s as it should be. If anything, this is a pretty big indicator of the interior art’s quality, if it’s not really the sort of style that I like the best and yet I’m singing its praises this much.
What made you think it would?
It may sound like I’m being too easy on this one, or that I’m overly enthusiastic in my praise of it, but I don’t really think this is the greatest comic ever made. The reason I speak so highly of everything is that I really don’t think there’s any part of this comic that’s done poorly. It’s nothing ground-breaking or anything, it’s not going to change your world view and while I can’t think of any real glaring problems with it, I also don’t really think it does much amazingly well either, but that doesn’t put it into the “mediocre” category. Without any major screw-ups, this book just plain fun to read from start to finish. It’s an excellent silly space adventure. It’s just all around good and something I’d definitely recommend for anyone for a fun read if you happen to come across the collected edition anywhere.
...And now I really need to get back into that game...
Next time we'll take a look at the ongoing Marvel adaptions of Baum's Oz books!