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Post by thwhtguardian on Sept 3, 2020 5:31:48 GMT -5
OFF THE RACKSThe Realest Reviews On The Web  |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 3, 2020 6:19:54 GMT -5
 Shazam! #14. Written by Geoff Johns. Art by Scott Kolins (and Dale Eaglesham). What a hot mess this series turned out to be. The series started out with so much potential but rapidly declined in quality. First the delays killed any momentum the book had. Next Johns' pacing was terrible. He spent 13 issues writing a story that could have been told in 6 issues and yet the last issue felt rushed trying to wrap up everything quickly. Random ideas like Superboy Prime as a villain never really developed properly. I wished Johns' had realized he was stretched too thin and brought in a co-writer to help. Then we have Eaglesham. Out of 13 issues he only completely drew 2 of them. The rest had other artists partially draw the issue or do the entire issue. DC should have given the book to another artist. I liked some of Johns' ideas. The problem was the execution of them. He either spent way too much exploring some (the Magiclands) or glossed over it (Superboy Prime and Black Adam). Part of the problem was I just re-read The Power of Shazam HC and man the difference between the 2 series showed how bad this one was. I hope DC learns from the mistakes made on this series and tries again with a new creative team. 2/10. For this issue. 4/10 for entire series. |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Sept 3, 2020 8:03:28 GMT -5
Strange Adventures #5Written by Tom King Art by Evan "Doc" Shaner and Mitch Gerads Summary: The Pykkt Empire, which devastated Rann, is coming for Earth but is the Hero of Rann to be trusted?
Plot: This book is shaping up to be one of those stories that just wasn't made to be serialized and should have been released as a stand alone graphic novel. When I went back and read all five chapters back to back I found I enjoyed the over all mood of the piece, the intrigue was thick and engrossing and the character interactions were fantastic to see...but when read piece by piece with the passage of time between issues it makes each individual part feel frustratingly incomplete. I love a good mystery, and at its heart that's what this book feels like, but if you're going to serialize a mystery you have to parcel out the clues evenly in each piece in order to satisfy your reader's curiosity. Here though, instead of laying it out bit by bit in each issue King is leaving it all ambiguous until he reaches the denouement which is a valid structure for a novel but just doesn't play out well in a periodical as building your mystery on a lack of information means your reader can't play along. It's a strange bird, while I continue to be disappointed by the book on an issue by issue basis there is enough going on that I feel like that when all is said and done it will make for an interesting read.
On the one hand I can't help but feel like I should drop the book and just wait for the collection as at this point it seems like that will obviously make for a much more pleasurable reading experience, but on the other hand I feel as if I've already come this far so I might as well keep chugging along and in terms of my comic reading habits I'm solidly a dinosaur and I just plain love getting new books each month...so I guess I'll keep on trucking.
Art: Despite my feelings on how the pacing of the book is structured the art continues to be absolutely stunning, it's seriously some of the best art I've seen in a mainstream book in a long time. In the flashback sequences of the war on Rann Shaner's style absolutely delivers on giving us readers that silver age feel of wonder with every panel he draws but with a very modern fair that gives you that almost cinematic flair that you expect in a modern book. Meanwhile, in the present day scenes on Earth Gerards more grounded style creates a perfect ying and yang feel when compared to the flashbacks which is such an important part of the plot itself as it highlights that feeling that things are not only much different now than they once were but that things then(and now) may not be as they appear. I think ,even more so than my dinosaur brained buying habits, it's the art that makes me want to keep picking this book up issue by issue; it's just so damn stunning I just don't want to deprive myself from being able to look at it each month as it comes out.
Grade:7/10 (5 of which comes from the art!) |
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Post by thwhtguardian on Sept 4, 2020 8:33:01 GMT -5
Lost Soldiers #2Written by Ales Kot Art by Luca Casalanguida Summary: As the aged Trey and Kowalski move towards their destination in Mexico the violence of their pasts re-emerge.
Plot: In its second issue Kot's Lost Soldiers continues to enthrall you with its symphony on violence; drawing you in with its raw emotions and mysterious plot. I say symphony above not to kill you with purple prose but rather because it's the only word I can come up with that so aptly describes the tone of this book; the ambiguous narration sprinkled through out the story has a definite poetic cadence to it that rises and falls with the plot, heightening the emotions of the story while being detached and unrelated to what is going on in each panel. Going along with that symphonic metaphor the entire plot to this issue is like a refrain to that of the first, but with out feeling repetitive; it has the same focus on the violent acts we saw in the first issue and both are referenced heavily but here the focus is on the after effects of violence giving us both perspective on what came before and reinforcing the mood. It's a great structure that really creates a lot of tension but in a slow and quiet way which belays the explosion that looks to be coming in the near future.
Art: Luca Casalanguida's continues to be the perfect fit for this book, his look is energetic and although he favors an at times almost messy, scratchy style to his linework the images are always clear in their purpose and deeply emotional. What I love is just how human his characters are, too often in comics telling war stories the soldiers come off looking like supermen but here they retain their flaws and frailty which makes their trials feel all the more harrowing.
Grade:9/10 |
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Post by earl on Sept 9, 2020 16:29:50 GMT -5
I'm curious but Alex Kot's Zero from a few years ago was a really maddening read. Parts of it was really well done and parts of it was just over the top waste of space.
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Post by hondobrode on Sept 10, 2020 23:06:30 GMT -5
Zero was one of the worst things I've ever read and Alex Kot is a name I will actively avoid at all costs. He wrote a mini for Valiant that was only so so but other than that I avoid like the plague.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Sept 11, 2020 7:31:29 GMT -5
I'm curious but Alex Kot's Zero from a few years ago was a really maddening read. Parts of it was really well done and parts of it was just over the top waste of space. Zero was one of the worst things I've ever read and Alex Kot is a name I will actively avoid at all costs. He wrote a mini for Valiant that was only so so but other than that I avoid like the plague. I've never read his work before but I'm enjoying Lost Soldiers alot. I don't know where it'll ultimately go, but the journey has been interesting so far so I'm down with reading more. |
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Post by hondobrode on Sept 11, 2020 22:49:19 GMT -5
I've never heard of it.
I can honestly say there's hardly anyone I won't give a chance, but Alex Kot is probably at the top of my personal list.
Hopefully your experience turns out a lot better than my two were thwhtguardian.
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Post by earl on Sept 11, 2020 23:15:54 GMT -5
I read Zero in trade, got the first one thought it was interesting and had some trade credit at a store and got the other 3 in one shot.
The guy tried to throw some total U turns into the plot and the story flies off the track like a freight train. There is like a single fight scene that I swear goes across like 4 issues of the comics. Then the going gets totally bonkers.
It's weird bad though, I was kinda ticked I blew like $50 bucks (trade & cash) to read the story, but I not ticked off enough that I set the comics on fire or anything. I still give the creators some props for trying such a weird wacky story, but I don't think it worked.
I did like the first trade and the series, it's just it goes oddball after that. It's an 'arthouse' comic thing, you can tell the creators probably are big fans of Warren Ellis and Grant Morrison.
That anthology thing Kot was doing with Image looked interesting on the shelf, but burn me once shame on you... I did not get an issue of that one.
Drifter was another "what the heck is actually going on" Image series I got into that is/was kind of the same way. I liked it better, but it was another series of secrets that lead kinda nowhere, but hey it looks cool.
It's like some old Heavy Metal comics, it looks good but half the time you have no idea what exactly is going on.
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