Just in case you haven’t heard that the the world is ending in 2012, let me explain it for you. The Mayans developed a calendar in approximately 3000 BC which will end in 2012. Of course as any logical person must conclude, the only reason that the calendar would end is because the world will too, or something like that. This is the basis for the storyline of Apotheosis 2012, of which I was able to read the first chapter.
Before I get into the storyline, let me first address the functioning of the app. The creators have drawn and designed the comic book to fit the screen of an iPhone, which means there is no scrolling to see the whole page or expanding text. A simple swipe or tap advances the story, much like every other book or app out there. Unlike a standard comic book, however, Apotheosis does not change the entire image with each swipe. Often the text may change while the image remains the same, and sometimes parts of the image may change as well. I believe this is what the creators are referring to when they mention the iPop-up feature.
Beyond this, the app is pretty bare-bones. There is no table of contents or any button at all, but since the story is fairly brief it isn’t really necessary. On a whim I counted the total number of taps/swipes to navigate through the complete story and came up with 70. I finished the whole comic in less than 10 minutes.
As for the storyline itself, I was not impressed. Please keep in mind that I am not usually a book reviewer, so feel free to take what I say with a grain of salt.
My biggest gripe against the story in Apotheosis is that it was just too confusing for me. As writers and filmmakers will sometimes do, the writer drops the reader into the middle of the storyline without any knowledge of the preceding events. When done well this is a great storytelling technique that builds the readers curiosity, but in Apotheosis I was left confused rather than curious. The only character I know anything about is the main character, and about all I know is her name and that she has some kind of power. Most of the time readers need a character to identify with as they experience the story, but with so little information I wasn’t sure who she was.
As I read the story I couldn’t help but feel like the comic was some sort of tract for the new age religion. There was a lot of time spent talking about how mankind would evolve, reach enlightenment, end duality, and so on. There are a lot of people who will find these subjects interesting (I know, I live in California), but those who aren’t interested will find the lengthy discourse tedious.
Lastly, I just have to get this off my chest. The Catholic Church is the bad guy again? Really? You couldn’t try and come up with something that hasn’t been beaten to death by both good and bad writers alike for the last decade or two? I don’t really care much about the church itself, but it really does get tiring seeing the same stereotypes pop up. At least there seems to be some other villain at work as well, perhaps he/she/it will be more interesting.
As usual a majority will have to decide if this is the kind of story that interests them. If you enjoy comics about this type of subject matter, then you will likely enjoy this app. If you like it, it doesn’t really matter what I think anyway.
iTunes Link: Apotheosis 2012 Vol #1:A Preface to Destiny
Version 1.7
Reviewed on: iPod Touch (2nd gen) OS 3.1.2
