Beauty, as they say, is only skin deep. As I’ve said in other reviews, I don’t find art quality a strong predictor of how much I’m going to enjoy a comic, and that’s because I’m here for the stories. Yes, hideous art can ruin an otherwise enjoyable story if it interferes with the telling, and yes, a talented artist can use their pictures to tell a better story than their words alone could, but no art, no matter how gorgeous, can elevate a worthless story into readability.
Stand Still Stay Silent tells a tale set 90 years after a strange and horrifying plague ended the world as we know it, twisting humans and animals alike into grotesque, bloodthirsty abominations. Humans in the new Nordic Union in northern Europe have rebuilt some semblance of civilization, thanks in no small part to the harsh winters of the region and the lethal effect these have on infected monsters. And now a team of researchers have decided it’s time to mount an expedition out into the Silent World to reclaim the lost secrets and technologies of the world that was.
The first thing I noticed about SSSS wasn’t the art. It wasn’t the striking graphic design of the comic’s website. It wasn’t even the cute gay haircut that Tuuri is sporting. It was the fact that everyone in the cast is white. In fact, every character in the entire comic is white. Not a single person of color survived the apocalypse.
Now, I hear some people saying “But what’s wrong with that? It’s a comic set in Scandinavia, the whitest place on earth. Surely that’s just accurate.” Well, the thing is that that’s not true at all. There are people of color in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark AND Finland – indigenous people, people descended from immigrants, and people who’ve lived there forever. The fact that Sundberg has bought the idea that these countries are entirely white – and sold it to us in turn – pisses me off!
But forget questions of accuracy. This is a fantasy comic, filled with gods and magic and monsters, and frankly accuracy is a bit out the window. The real question is, how much unquestioned racism do you have to swallow to want to write a story about only white people? Worse still, a story where all non-white people are literally dead? Why would you come up with such a setting? In the past I’ve marked comics down for not including prominent people of color, but this is an order of magnitude worse.
And that’s not the only problem with the writing. The dialogue is stilted and forced, and never do I feel like I’m hearing a genuine person speak. Much time is dedicated to bizarre gags and situational comedy that falls flat. Maybe there’s something being lost in translation. Maybe. But certain other things, which need no translation – the pacing, the visual jokes, the character’s facial reactions – disappoint me equally, and these have no such excuse.
And don’t even get me started on the extremely long, boring prologue that introduces us to a large number of characters with no consequence whom we never see again and are all dead by the start of the first chapter.
I can forgive a lot if there’s at least a little bit of character depth (See: Zebra Girl), but SSSS denies me even that. Emil is an uptight buffoon whose only purpose seems to be having bad things happen to him (for laughs? one can only assume). Sigrun’s empty bravado is supposed to be funny as well, but just amounts to grating noise. Mikkel is supposed to be serious and competent, but comes across instead as boring, lacking any personality. There’s no hint in any of them of the insecurities, baggage, or secrets that make for interesting characters. There’s not even any real interpersonal drama!
It’s not all bad. There are some genuinely tense and horrifying moments when characters encounter trolls (the term for infected humans) and beasts (infected animals) in the wilds. The designs of the monsters, vehicles, uniforms, cities, etc. are all original and creative. And some characters speak no mutually intelligible languages with other characters, creating sticky and interesting linguistic problems. What? I’m a language nerd.
And of course, the art is breathtaking. Frankly I don’t know how Sundberg is able to churn out so many pages of such quality per week. I can’t lie, Stand Still Stay Silent has some of the most beautiful art of any webcomic I’ve ever seen.
But you know what they say about beauty.
Ultimately, none of the merits of this comic come anywhere near overcoming the glaring flaws: racist premise, shallow characters, weak dialogue, inconsistent worldbuilding, and tiresome attempts at humor.
Final verdict: The post-apocalypse genre is a bit saturated these days, and so stories have to be pretty unique to stand out from the crowd. If pretty drawings qualify as unique to you, give it a go. Otherwise, SSSS has nothing striking enough about it to recommend it. Sorry.
A) So far, there are NO couples in SSSS. Not in the main cast, anyway. Minna tends to focus less on romantic relationships regardless – her previous work had no romance or sexual content whatsoever, and SSSS may well turn out the same way. So the claim that it’s all straight couples is bogus right out the gate. Nice try.
B) “Mikkel is supposed to be serious and competent, but comes across instead as boring, lacking any personality.” I can’t stop laughing at how badly you’ve missed the mark. Mikkel is so deadpan sarcastic that ‘bullshit’ might as well be his middle name. If you took any of his dialog as serious, you’re not paying attention. Not to mention – competent? The man has been fired from numerous positions, probably because he enjoys bullshitting people into believing bruises can develop into ‘face cancer.’ Seriously, were you even reading the right comic?
C) SSSS has only just finished getting the main cast together – it’s a slow building comic, yes, and frankly the characters haven’t even been around each other long enough for proper introductions, let alone the kind of depth of relationships you’re looking for out of people who’ve been around each other for a handful of days, max. Making a blanket statement that there are no strong female characters because “none of the characters are strong”? That’s bullshit, plain and simple. Come up with a real analysis of how Tuuri and Sigrun are weak (one a girl who singlehandedly overruled her brother and pushed her cousin into joining the expedition because SHE wanted it, and the other an experienced hunter who has proven herself competent in combat and a hands on mentor figure who is also the clear leader of the group) and then you might have a leg to stand on.
As for the lack of POC thing…can’t really argue with you there, that’s a major weak point, and it’s hotly debated in the site’s comments section which other areas of the world might have survived but gone silent due to the global communications breakdown. If the humor’s not to your taste, that’s your call too. But I fail to see how you can judge a comic that has zero romantic pairings so far on how straight it is. Really.
For the record, I was referring to the ten thousand straight couples in the prologue. Perhaps it’s unfair to count the prologue, but it was also unfair to make me read it, so.
You may have a point about Mikkel – it’s true that he deadpans the “face cancer” thing – but there’s no denying that his role in the expedition team is the rock, the stable one who’s supposed to hold things together. He’s a direct foil for Sigrun’s recklessness, but he fails in his role because his stoic nature allows Sigrun to ignore him. Since the expedition began, we haven’t seen anything other than this: Mikkel being a hardass about decontamination protocol, Mikkel using the radio, Mikkel talking about all the people he knew that died. Yawn. So forgive me if him pranking Emil one time doesn’t fill me with a sense of his personality. Honestly, I’d prefer a deadpan prankster Mikkel to the unending “slapstick Emil” routine we’ve been subjected to.
And it’s clear to me that you have no idea what I mean when I talk about “strong female characters”, or strong characters in general. The strength of a character isn’t dependent on how powerful or competent they are, nor is it a factor of how they influence the events of the plot. A strong character is one with nuance and depth, one in which conflict dwells, one that presents a variety of emotional states – y’know, like a real person. And yes, a strong character has agency – but it’s agency over their own character arc, not other characters or events, that gives them that strength. Neither Sigrun, Tuuri, nor any of the other characters exhibit any of these traits. The closest SSSS has gotten to character development is with Emil of all people, and only on the very most recent page!
It’s a bit funny to me that you criticized my analysis of Mikkel but then went on to say that Sigrun is “an experienced hunter who has proven herself competent” and “a hands on mentor figure” and “the clear leader”. Not to plagiarize, but seriously, were you even reading the right comic? For all that I fault her storytelling, Sundberg is definitely NOT trying to make us think Sigrun is a competent leader. Here, I put together a little montage:
Slow-burning is one thing; being seven chapters (and a prologue) in and having no hint of character depth or development is entirely another. Sorry. (Not sorry.)
Anyway, all these things aside, the main reason that I failed this comic is the racism of the premise. Everything else you’re coming at me about is just the stuff that made the difference between a D- and an F. Even the no-homo part isn’t that significant – check out my reviews of Chirault and Miamaska for no-homo comics that still got an high grade from me. Bottom line, Sundberg fucked up bad, and I have no qualms saying so. It doesn’t even matter if other parts of the world survived, because there are people of color in the Nordic countries in real life! So like, maybe examine your faves before you come onto my site defending them so hard.
You have formed your opinion about this comic, and I respect and understand that opinion. I do, however, feel compelled to come to the defense of a comic that I love.
The characters are not as flat and empty as you portray them to be. For example, you say Tuuri isn’t strong, but she left her brother and the tiny village they grew up in behind to explore a feral world that is teeming with monsters carrying an illness she has no immunity to. Her desire to feel useful and fully realized is constantly thwarted by the physical limits of her body. Despite all this, she stays true to her cheerfully determined character. Maybe my standards for strong characters are just lower than yours.
As you noted, the story develops very slowly. The full cast has only gotten together very recently, but in the meantime, Sundberg has been crafting a vast but claustrophobic, lush but barren world, full of danger and mystery and a little bit of magic. Now the scene is finally set, and the characters have already begun to grow at a much faster rate. There is so much that we still don’t know about the world of SSSS, and I predict that this review falls just before Sundberg really digs deep into that world. Has it taken too long to get to this point? Maybe. Will it be worth the wait? I sure as hell don’t want to miss it.
Little disclaimer- I absolutely acknowledge that your critiques are valid and I don’t expect what I’ve said to convince you to continue reading this comic. You’ve turned me on to quite a few excellent comics, and I’m sure your other readers have had the same experience. It’s for them that I say, even though it is less than perfect, this comic is beautiful, exciting, and worthy of attention.
There’s actually a thread on the SSSS forum discussing ethnic/racial diversity! Might be worth a look.
Just a reminder to readers, I do moderate all comments and I don’t tolerate hateful language or ideas, so if you want anyone to see the 15-paragraph comment you probably spent a considerable amount of time writing, putting “people of color” in scare quotes is not a good way to go about things.
SSSS more like ZZZZ. (I’m sorry. That joke was terrible.)
Hahaha
I found a more inclusive norse mythology-inspired comic called Thistil Mistil Kistil. Despite being set in a semi-mythic Viking Age, it still has non-white characters, because gasp! people can move from where they were born for various reasons! The main characters are Coal, a dead boy who becomes an einherji and is sent on an errand by the gods, Loki, who’s… loki, Hedda, an escaped christian slave, and Ibrahim, who is a scholar from Al-Andalus. I like it, and the art style is pretty cool (if you’ve seen The Secret of Kells, that’s what it’s inspired by.)
I still read SSSS in the hopes that it will get better, because when it comes to stories I am a glutton for punishment. It takes a lot for me to put down a book or stop reading a webcomic. I’ll let you know if any non-white characters make an appearance or if the people start acting like people instead of badly-portrayed archetypes.