It’s refreshing to have a web comic, for once, that shows people earning a good day’s wages instead of wasting the day away playing video games. We’re introduced to an eclectic group of low level employees who deal with pushy customers and jerk wad co-workers. There’s one who’s unrepentantly cruel, another who is a white guy co-opting the mannerisms of another culture, and another who would be a hot girl if not for her glasses and her mousy demeanor. Yet, by, being generally good-hearted to each other, they manage to make it through the day. The story can get awfully dramatic at times, yet it goes down easy with all the humorous geek references that are chuckle-worthy for outsiders, gut-bustingly hilarious for obsessive nerds.

I’m talking, of course, about David Willis’ Shortpacked! Unfortunately, us Comic Fencers were asked to review Gordon McAlpin’s Multiplex, which is like Shortpacked! without the Batman jokes, the likable characters, the creativity, and the humor. In other words, it sucks.

Now I’m no The Doctor, so you’ll not get from me a diatribe so eloquent that it’s suitable for mounting. Nonetheless, I shall vent: I hated pretty every single one of the characters in Multiplex save one. The ones who aren’t depicted as cruel d-bags (sorry, got to keep this site clean for the kids) are witless morons … who happen to be Christian — edgy! They show affection toward each other by pranking each other with grisly costumes or playfully tossing racist remarks at each other. Which is well and fine if the readers were introduced to any redeeming value behind that. Instead, we see these guys denying customers access to movies based on their personal whims or goofing on how stupid the movie-goers are. It’s like watching a bunch of crybaby, over privileged 12-year-olds who act like cruel jerkholes when given the tiniest notion that they might know something the adults don’t. Am I supposed to enjoy reading about these hateful cretins? Seriously, flipping through the archives was like getting a tooth extracted with a shrimp fork. The only likable character is Angie, the crew’s resident goth girl. It’s a shame that she’s also quite bland when not dressed as Go Go Yubari.

The shrimp fork only twists exposed nerve endings in a tight, rope like braid when Multiplex tries to get dramatic. It’s as if McAlpin suddenly realized that everyone was a spiteful stereotype and threw everything from the John Hughes book of character development to flesh them out. Remember that brainless Christian idiot? That person might actually turn out the be smarter than they appear, and not nice at all! How about that goth girl who’s crying all the time? [EDIT: It looks like I was mistaken. The author has informed me that the “brainless… idiot” was not a Christian.] Why, deep down inside she’s a strong Christian who likes to engage other co-workers in discussions on faith! Look, I have no problem with character development. It’s just that the developments come out of friggin’ nowhere and are bizarrely jarring when compared to the gag-heavy portions.

Last month, the webcomic Ctrl+Alt+Del ran a story where its unlikable, one-dimensional gamer characters were thrust in a situation involving a miscarriage. The strip was roundly mocked, for the most part because the sudden turn to maudlin was actually funnier than any of the gag strips run previously. Multiplex is like that strip all the time … only instead of laughing at the characters, I wanted to reach into the computer screen to crumple and stomp on the strip, its denizens, and the stupid, stupid multiplex that by all rights should have gone out of business a long time ago.

Rating:

Multiplex
by Gordon McAlpin
http://multiplexcomic.com

review by Larry Cruz

(17 votes, average: 1.76 out of 5)

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