Eureka: Dormant Gene

by Andrew Cosby, Jonathan L. Davis (Illustrator), Mark Dos Santos (Illustrator)

EUREKA creators Andrew Cosby and Jaime Paglia are joined by writer Jonathan L. Davis (THE DUKES OF HAZZARD) in bringing mayhem to everybody's favorite town of eccentric geniuses In a school where students beg for homework, and the only time class is skipped is for Science Fair, Zoe Carter thought she was used to feeling like an outsider. But when the students of Tesla High stop doing homework and start acting strangely, it's up to Zoe to save the day

It's high school shenanigans as Zoe experiences romance, mishaps and a zombie apocalypse or two. Just another normal day in EUREKA

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Science Fiction, Comics Manga

112 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2009

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reads like a lost episode.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing revelatory or groundbreaking, more like a lost episode. Still, if you're already predisposed to read it, you'll like it.

[Janelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This brings together two of my loves: Eureka and Twilight parodies! I had no idea this was a Twilight parody as it's not marketed as such, and was pleasantly surprised and amused when I started reading it on my morning train commute.

***TL;DR SPOILERY PLOT OVERVIEW***

Zoe is being typically emo over being the only average person in a school full of geniuses, despite the ~genius student population being consumed by the incredibly mundane book and movie saga, Sundown. Zoe gets a hot new lab partner, Gene, who saves her from a Godzilla-sized girl going on the rampage at Tesla High. Unfortunately Gene isn't what he appears to be, and the entire student body soon transforms into a horde of rabid vampire zombies.

Turns out Gene was a guy Zoe accidentally blew off weeks earlier, after he failed to realise her cry of 'leave me alone!' was a response to a phone conversation and not his profession of undying love for her. He took it hard, channeling all his effort into developing a "Gene" therapy to alter his DNA and make him hot, convinced that it would make Zoe want him. Unfortunately it has horrible side-effects, turning the user into a rabid vampire zombie.

Gene had been doling out the DNA-altering formula to insecure classmates, but Godzilla girl from earlier hadn't been able to afford the therapy. She stole a vial of the formula and reverse engineered it, but instead of growing several inches taller she grew several metres taller, hence the violent Godzilla rampage from earlier. Zoe has a plan to cure the town, and Godzilla girl is key.

Godzilla girl is restored to Godzilla height and rounds up the townspeople in an uprooted water tower. They're ushered into the sealed biosphere beneath Global Dynamics where Henry pumps in an antidote through the artifical rain system. Everyone and everything returns to normal and Gene apologises.

***END SPOILERY PLOT OVERVIEW***

Given the recent release of Breaking Dawn, I picked the perfect time to finally get around to reading Eureka: Dormant Gene. I hate Twilight, hate everything it represents, and therefore love anything that takes the piss out of it. The fact that it's one of my favourite shows taking the piss is even better. The references are very thinly veiled but it's surprisingly not mean-spirited, and can stand on its own as a text that just happens to parody that horrid saga. If you could have a cute Twilight parody, this would be it.

Dormant Gene has a very different tone to the original Eureka arc because it's from Zoe's perspective. The artwork is more simplistic but not crude per se, taking on a more juvenile cartoon vibe. I liked the idea behind the artwork, even if I didn't like the actual artwork all that much. I appreciated the thought that went into it: the creative team obviously decided that we should not only hear Zoe's side of the story, but we should see things through her eyes too.

Though I liked the idea behind the artwork, I didn't like the artwork in itself. The trade paperback has the most beautifully detailed cover of Jordan Hinson as Zoe, but the girl inside bears no resemblance. The artist just drew a generic looking blonde girl, slapped the beauty spot on her chin and called it Zoe. Henry, Vince Putnam, Lupo and Jack were mostly recognisable, but Allison looked like some random African-American woman with a beauty spot and Nathan Stark looked like an angry bushman.

I know that it's possible for a comic TV tie-in to accurately portray a character's likeness because the first two Firefly trade paperbacks did it perfectly! I'm unsure if the creative team behind Dormant Gene had issues with budgets, deadlines or general laziness, but I'd like to have seen more attention to detail. (Sidenote: Ed Quinn as Nathan Stark is the hottest thing ever, why do they always make him look like a rapist?!)

I also thought many of the panels were just too large. It was the comic book equivalent of when you're desperately under the word count for an assignment, so you double space the lines and widen the margins to make your writing appear longer than it is. They could've cut the arc down into 2 or 3 incredibly detailed issues, rather than 4 big and basic issues that struggle to fill space. I noticed a couple of sloppy spelling errors too, which should have been picked up in editing.

Artwork peeves aside, I thought the storyline and parodying were mega cute. They had the awkward chem lab where Gene insults Zoe's spelling then does all the work himself, and a scene where Gene reveals his supernatural abilities while saving Zoe from being crushed by a statue. The storyline of Sundown mimics Twilight and they even parodied the cover, with Sundown featuring an image of a hand holding a pear (with a brain inside it?!)

I can't say that this was my favourite Eureka storyline though, it doesn't read like an extra episode like the original arc did. It's probably the fact that it's from Zoe's perspective; we don't hear a lot from Jack or Stark and there's no omg-how-the-fuck-did-Global-Dynamics-approve-this-project moment. As a result it feels removed, as if we're in a scene from a larger episode and Zoe is just daydreaming. It follows the same formula where Jack investigates a Global Dynamics project gone awry, Nathan Stark spouts nothing but bitchy comments and Jack saves the day with street smarts, but it just feels different. It lacks cohesion, it feels more like fanfiction than a well thought out tie-in.

Overall: It was a cute read and I love anything that's Eureka-related or parodies Twilight, and it helped pass the time on my morning commute. It wasn't the best Eureka tie-in however, with mediocre artwork, storyline and a lack of cohesion. Unless you're an absolute Eureka nut like me, buy the first arc and skip this one. Cute but not necessary.

[Lauren Good · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was good, but the dialogue was so-so. The illustrations were mostly pretty good, but a little wonky at times.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast and fun

[Janelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Issue 1: A guy under treatment at Global Dynamics has gone off the deep end and is holding Zoe hostage at her school. Jack tries to talk him down and winds up shooting him in the head, only for him to get up and escape a few minutes later. Turns out his name is Eric Brogan and he was in the military with Jo. He goes after Jo and begs her to help him die, knocking her out when she refuses.

Issue 2: While going after Brogan with a "bubble gun", Jack bumps into Taggart who quickly joins the hunt. While Jo denies any connection to Brogan, we learn that he was exposed to an untested biological weapon and is going after Stark in return. Brogan hides out in Allison's car and ambushes her, inevitably coming back to life after she deliberately wraps her car around a tree. Fargo calls in the previous head of GD, Warren King (the guy from the pilot!), much to Nathan and Jack's dismay.

Issue 3: Warren King bickers with Stark while Fargo tries to suck up to them both, to little success. The rest of the crew and King's trained wolf try to find Allison in the meantime. Unfortunately we learn that Brogan is infected with nanites that were programmable by GD, but have gained sentience and are now interpreting Brogan's thoughts as commands. He wants to destroy GD for what they did to him, and needs Allison's clearance to do so.

Issue 4: The Eureka crew manage to temporarily down Brogan with a combination of painkillers and computer programming, shutting off the machine and leaving behind the real Brogan. Rather than trying to destroy GD, this Brogan just wants to finally die. Jo eventually admits her connection to Brogan. The Eureka crew let him into their new zero emissions reactor where him and the nanites are destroyed.


I love reading comics based on TV shows or movies. I can imagine the characters' voices in my head as I read each panel, and as I come across each character quirk or sarcastic quip I think "That is so Jack" (or Nathan, Taggart, Jo etc). The writers and artists did a great job of capturing Jack and Nathan's sarcastic tete-a-tete's, Fargo's teacher's pet complex and general awkwardness and Taggart's.....Taggart-ness. The change of medium didn't hinder the experience at all, with the 4 issues really feeling like a standalone episode of Eureka.

I totally smiled to myself like an idiot when Jack dropped trou to resolve the hostage situation, and when he blackmailed Stark about his reliance on hair growth supplements. I thought to myself "that is totally something he would do", remembering the episode where he tries to impress Allison and Stark with his questionable gym apparel. I also really enjoyed the abundance of Taggart in this arc! I thought the mini Jo/Taggart flirtation on the show was beyond adorable, and I always look forward to episodes featuring Taggart. I was totally imagining his OTT Aussie accent in my mind as I read along :3

Although I love anything Eureka, one thing I do have to criticise is the artwork. You get these awesome covers with stylised versions of the characters, almost like the artists just hit an animation filter on Photoshop. Then when you open the comic you're left with very generic artwork. It's unreasonable to expect that the entire comic be done in this heavily stylised manner, but some of the characters were just so off.

I don't care that Allison and Jo seem to have switched races or that Zoe's unique looks were completely glossed over, but Nathan Stark looks like a serial rapist! I'm totally biased since I'd bear Ed Quinn's children in a heartbeat, but I feel the artists failed to do him any justice. The hair growth supplement scene was funny, but didn't detract from the fact that he looks like Wolverine's sleazy cousin. Ignoring the beard, Warren King also looked nothing like he did in the pilot, and his character just seemed totally different. However, I will give the team credit for their depictions of Jack, Fargo, Vincent and Taggart, I thought they were cute and relatively true to character.

Overall: If you're a fan of the show, you'll be a fan of these comics. Jack is just as funny on paper, and his face-offs with Nathan are still the stuff slashfics are made of. If you haven't seen the show, the sarcastic remarks, running jokes and oddball characters will still be funny, but not as meaningful as they'll undoubtedly be to loyal viewers.

[Lolly's Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of comics set in the early days of the series, revolving around a story arc which, among other actions, gives us a glimpse into Jo's past, her time spent in Afghanistan before she came to Eureka and, yes, her early love life. We also see the reappearance of Warren King, who, while helping to save the day, spends the rest of his time annoying Nathan with his obvious and active attraction for Alison. (Yup, Nathan's here; I told you this was an early-days story.) We also get Taggert (who finds himself threatened by the appearance of Jo's old boyfriend, even though he still trying to hide his attraction towards her, so we get a lot of cute, awkward scenes with him), a rather scary nanite-based bio-weapon (which Carter re-terms a "zombie weapon," to the despair of Warren and Nathan, even though the name perfectly describes the weapon), and a very cool "bubble" gun (which pretty much does as it sounds--another of Carter's descriptors). There's a bit more violence and bloodshed, which is a departure from the show (which rarely shows anything more than a nosebleed), but I think it's something to be expected from the medium, so it didn't bother me. Basically, it's a cute, light, and fun little book. And the illustrations ain't too bad, either; they capture the essences of the actors from the show without being slavishly faithful depictions, caricatures, or bland, indecipherable sketches.

[Bry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmm...well that was disappointing.

And sadly it wasn't just one thing that was disappointing. The art was sub par (none of the characters didn't look like their counterparts at all beyond their skin and hair color), the plot was riddled with holes and poor pacing, and the inconsistencies were super annoying (like in one box Jo is CLEARLY not wearing handcuffs but in the very next box is asking Carter to uncuff her).

The story is supposed to be set just a few months after Carter's arrival in Eureka but after Nathan becomes GD director. It is a about man whom Jo served with in Afghanistan and who has apparently been held captive in Section 5 of GD with NO ONE'S knowledge...right because they are able to keep a secret in the most heavily secured portion of the entire facility that even the director doesn't have access too. Right.



All in all I should have just never read it. Especially because now that the show has been canceled (grrrr) I can't even wipe it from my brain by watching a new completely amazing episode. Sadnss.

[Purple · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yeah, not so good.

Unfortunately the most fun you'll get out of this book is reading speech bubbles in the characters' voices (particularly Taggart's) as there's really not much to enjoy here.

The story is uninspiring and borrows from other science-fiction (Terminator; Futurama) without ever really going anywhere interesting. You get a glimpse of a Jo backstory, but nothing really interesting or revealing.

The art is sub-standard, and (covers aside) the characters don't even look all that much like their real life counterpart.

None of the cast are at all put forward as being a genius, and, in fact, the smartest thing about the book is that it includes a 10-page preview of the next volume which looks oh-so-much worse. This was a clever move because there's no way I can rate this as a one star book as there is clearly worse to come!

So, two stars it is, and I shall read no more.

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

The specific one I'm reviewing is the one with Zoe on the cover. I think the artwork is really well done. The inside artwork as okay; most of the characters are recognizable.

Zoe and her father are having another argument, which is nothing unusual. Zoe feels out of place at the high school since she doesn't feel she's as smart as the other students there. Then Joe gets mad at Zoe telling her that she turned down Joe's cousin for a date, but Zoe says she was never asked.

Some of the classes are shown and there are incredibly advanced compared to the average high school class. Then she meets a guy that seems interesting to her, but he isn't very nice to her. Then there's the problem of the giant girl in the school who runs amok and the statue that just about squishes Zoe.


A rather interesting beginning.

[Neil Ottenstein · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection comes from earlier days in the series with Stark in charge of GD. The covers a very nice, though Chapter 1 features a character that isn't even in the story. It showcases a reason why I usually dislike comics of TV shows - the characters rarely look like they do in the show. Taggart looked like a completely different character and you'd only know it was him by other people referring to him and by his manner of speech. Anyway, the story probably could have been wrapped up in half the time. It just isn't a good addition to the Eureka universe - the overall story appears to have come from the Eureka creators but someone else wrote the script.

[Matt town · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a weird find! I absolutely did not know this comic existed before picking it up, but when I saw it I just couldn't not buy it. This isn't the best story in the world, but it definitely reads like a Season 1~2 episode that could have realistically happened. The story focuses around Zoe mainly and takes place largely at her school, and features a good number of main and side characters from the show. The only big complaint I have for the comic is that the art is not great at all. To be honest, I couldn't even tell who Allison or Nathan were supposed to be. Once again, a good supplement, but doesn't give you any new revelations about the show.

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The comic is a good accompaniment to the show, as it was in the first and second seasons. Reading it now, some of the character interaction feels a bit awkward and dated, but the personalities ring true. This collection feels like a good, solid, early episode of the show. The art felt a little off from the reality of the characters, but not so much that it was a distraction in most scenes (Dr. King's depiction actually had me looking at IMDB to remember what he looked like, and that's really nothing like the actor.)

[CJ Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This graphic novel, based on the series Eureka, was entertaining, but not great. At times the dialogue felt a little too cheesy, and for a show that almost never actually violently kills people, there was a lot of bloodshed in this graphic novel (even if there wasn't any death). However, I did like the idea of bringing back Warren King and I miss Stark so much that it was fun to have another story with him in.

[Jodi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the television series Eureka and when I saw this, I thought it would be a great addition. It's cute and enjoyable but didn't really add much to the series mythos and I didn't feel that the characterizations were particularly accurate. On the other hand, it was very nice to see Stark again, in all his arrogance. He was probably the most well drawn (in every way) character. This is best enjoyed by people who have only watched Season 1. Too much changes after that.

[Neil Ottenstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume was better than this first volume of Eureka in comics. The best part of the book was chapter 3 where parts of the story are told from the point of view of different characters and we see that in different art styles. That worked very well - especially the Kirby-like dinosaur.

Overall, though, the characterizations didn't really feel like Eureka, but it was nice to revisit some of the characters.

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This begins a very serious storyline in the comic. Carter gets notified of a hostage situation at the school, and the hostage is Zoe. He gets there with Jo outside with a sniper scope. The guy inside is obviously insane. Joe has a chance to take a shot but she doesn't take it, but Carter shoots the guy in the head.

That normally should have settled it, but the guy gets back up later. Then the story goes in to the back history of Jo and the mad man.

[Jodi · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second Eureka book has a better story and sets up Zoey for what happens in the television show. She's one of my favorite characters so it was nice to see her front and center. That said, again, the characterizations were not spot on and that dragged the story down a little. Fans of the series who are between seasons 1 and 2 will get the most enjoyment from this.

[Janastasia Whydra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andrew Cosby's, Jaime Paglia's, Brendan May's, and Diego Barrito's Eureka is a good quality graphic novel that ties-in to the hit Syfy television series. I thought the artwork could have been a little bit better though. I did not think Fargo, Jo, or Taggart looked like their human counterparts. The storyline was genuine and makes me want to read Vol 2 right away.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

4 stars for the story (super cute), minus a star for the artwork. The characters look nothing like their IRL versions. Fargo's hair isn't even the right color, and he's a foot taller than he should be. Ugh.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This listing seems to have both of the Eureka graphic novel TPBs on the same listing. The first volume is a passable imitation of an episode of Eureka, but the 2nd (Dormant Gene) is better and really captures the spirit of the show.

[Jutta · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was amusing....

[Edward Petersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I miss this show! This was a fun read and I enjoyed revisiting old friends, but the story was mediocre and focused on Zoe. I'd rather a Carter-centric story.