The First v. 3: Sinister Motives

The First (collected editions) #3

by Barbara Randall Kesel

In the land of the First, dissent has erupted into open warfare as Seahn, young turk of House Dexter, has forsaken his ideals and his House to find power on the other side, and with both sides caught up in a tide of emotion and eruption of old hatreds, war seems inevitable. A Graphic Novel. Original.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics

160 pages, Paperback

First published December 4, 2002

About the author

Barbara Randall Kesel is an American writer and editor of comic books; her bibliography includes work for DC Comics, Marvel Comics, CrossGen, Image Comics and Dark Horse Comics. Kesel is a very outspoken opponent of sexism in the comic book industry. She is known for her strong female characters, influencing her then husband Karl's work on Lois Lane in the Superman titles and creating Grace, the ruler of the Golden City location in Comics' Greatest World.

Kesel initially came into the comics world after writing a 10-page letter to editor Dick Giordano regarding the portrayal of female comic book characters. At Dark Horse, Kesel was part of Team CGW, responsible for most of the design and creation of the setting and characters in the Golden City location. She is currently part of book packaging company The Pack, alongside Lee Nordling, Brian Augustyn, Gordon Kent and Dave Olbrich.

Kesel has been nominated for the 1991 "Best Editor" Eisner Award for Badlands, Aliens: Genocide and Star Wars. In 1995, she was nominated for "Best Anthology" and "Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Material" Harvey Awards for, respectively, Instant Piano and Hellboy: Seed of Destruction. She won the 1996 "Best Graphic Album of Previously Published Work" Harvey Award, for Hellboy: The Wolves of St. August.

Reviews

[Daryl · Rating 1 out of 5]

Andrea DiVito carries on the tradition of Bart Sears' ridiculous, over-exaggerated art from the first two volumes. Perhaps not quite as bad, but he doesn't establish his own style. In traditional mythology (Greek, Norse, whatever) stories of gods are usually fairly interesting, even if the characters are unbelievable. In CrossGen's mythology, the godlike characters of the First are childish, spiteful, angry, argumentative, and downright stupid and mean, but their story is far from interesting. As I read this yesterday, I realized that one of the major problems is that there is not one single likable or sympathetic character here. My problem is that I bought all three volumes before starting to read - I would never have gone beyond volume 1 otherwise.