I was really looking forward to this three-part series after reading the blurb in my advance order catalogue from AnotherUniverse.com, in late 1999. Finally a story about real Jinn! The evil Arabic shape-changing, often evil folklore entities known to most westerners as jinnis-nothing at all like the comedic blue and blonde blinking jinnis of Hollywood.

     Ok, so I got a little too excited. Teaches my behind for not getting more information before I purchase something. Unfortunately, Jinn was a story that totally confused me; I am still debating whether there was even a story at all. The characters were vague, and there were about two seconds of jinn.

     The story begins near the Giza pyramids in Egypt, where a rouge archaeologist, named Damion Jackson, is on the verge of being laughed out of history, literally. Up until recently every theory Damion has proposed and sought to prove has been a failure. Damion needs to find a piece of antiquity that will give him the credibility and fame he wants and where else to find some mystical artifact than in Egypt? But then the story abruptly takes the reader to San Francisco, California.

     Enter Karen, a pretty, young, professional cat burglar, and the proud mistress of Roland, her own jinni. But before any character development and bonding can occur, the story switches back to Egypt to Damion who (before the reader is interrupted) is sucked into another dimension and finds himself amongst beings of myth and science fiction. The end-until issue two.

     Now, one could say the reason I did not like this story is because I am a geek-jerk nerd who was expecting evil shape changing beings from Asian folklore, but what kind of review would that be? The lack of jinn was the last reason why I did not like the series; I could over look that fact. What annoyed me was that this comic had, and I stress HAD, potential to be something great, if it had a more fleshed out story. In my opinion the story was here there and everywhere, and I was not even left with the notion to buy the next issue of the series.

     After reading the first comic I began to think that perhaps I had read two separate comics, and that I was just going insane. This story felt like it was created not for the sake of artistic intent, but more for the assembly line process of comic book commercialization that has stagnated the American Comic book industry.

     The artwork in the comic was GREAT! But what good are the pictures without a good story? I always was under the impression that comic books were a combination of literature and art, not solely art or solely words. If I wanted to view are I could go the museum. This comic is like those horror and adventure movies that have good special effects, but no story, and make me hate movies more and more.

     But being the fair individual I am to my readers I will take my hard earned money and purchase the next issue. Please note the only reason I am buying the next issue is because I would like to see how the plots in San Francisco and Egypt connect, because frankly I am confused about the whole situation! Perhaps there is some hope for this series yet. Check out next month's issue of Bandwidth for a REVIEW UPDATE.

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