Comic reviews: August 2019

So another month is done and with it more reviews for the great employer that is Pipedream Comics (just to keep them sweet so they don't cut me off from all these great comics they send me ;-) ).

I'm not sure what I was expecting with this months stash, but I think I had a positive vibe going for me given that not only were the titles I reviewed in June and July (overall) really good. But also, as I stared at the titles I had to choose from, all I could think was what a glorious selection of covers there were in front of me.

(Now, you should never judge a book by it's cover, but sometimes you just can't help yourself).

Resonant #1

So, the first review of the month was for Resonant #1 and what I have to say about this wass 'wow'!! I absolutely loved this title. It was so mysterious and I was absolutely engrossed and had tonnes of questions by the end of the issue. I've said how it reminds me of other apocalypse books (e.g. Walking Dead) but it's such a different beast and I'm seriously intrigued about these characters. The art, meanwhile is gorgeous. I've said that it has a European vibe and, I think that's true (I'm not sure where I've seen such a style before) but it's got such a beauty to it. I could think I could go on and on about this book because it's that good. I just hope it comes across in my comparatively neutral review.

Next up was Heart of Steal #1. Now I enjoyed this one, as it was a lot of fun and rather light-hearted. A thing I liked about it was the main character's narration, feeling like a movie which is running and then stops and has a voiceover saying 'so, this looks bad...' (so kinda like Deadpool actually). I think the lack of character quantity worked here, giving great focus on the three that are there and so each come across as interesting in their right. Meanwhile, Katie Fleming's art is cool too, although a bit rough in terms of the character depiction, and I thought it added to the fun and action of it all. It did kind of remind me of I am Hexed greatly if I'm honest. However, the colours didn't but I thought those worked well here as they kept the tone of the book from coming across as too silly.

Strangelands #1. What a
gorgeous McKone cover!!

Next came Strangelands #1. Now this was a tough one. I found it intriguing in a lot of ways, with a lot of questions I wanted to answered by the end; how did the Lands get their powers, who does the hitman work for? What is Win's plan here? etc. However, I just struggled to find the issue as it's own entity overally enjoyable, more 'meh'. The art is good, nothing to should home about but well rendered all the same. Sadly, it does nothing to heighten the story. The only good thing about this issue was the back-up, which really hooked me with it's story, as well as the teasers for the other titles (particularly for Omni). By the end, I didn't lie in that I'd be tempted to go back for seconds, but this would most likely be a title I would have to buy off the shelf based on each next issue.

And finally, while not necessarily a review that I completed, I nonetheless I read the first two issues of Ignited in order to A) get a greater sense of Humanoid's new universe and B) get more of a sense of Strangelands. However, much like Strangelands, I struggled with to get into it during the first issue. That said, the second issue felt like it improved considerably, although I can't put my finger on the why given that it still looks good and reads the same as the prior installment. I think the problem (for want of a better word) with the first issue was that it almost felt political but then stepped back from that ledge at the last minute. Also, it didn't state any correlation between the occuring changes in the world or these powers (although I suppose we aren't supposed to know that...yet). Finally, I had trouble connecting to the lead character in the first issue feeling that the series should have opened with a flashback of the shooting from her perspective before jumping to the present (but then I'm not a fiction writer).

Ignited #1

 

That said, I found the second issue read much better though. I think this was just a case that I started to ease into the book better by then and maybe stopped looking for some greater connections, treating it more like a mystery regarding their powers and a somewhat SJW-esque superhero thing (which might nicely connect it to Omni) while trying to focus on the comic as it's own thing, although I must confess that is probably the difficulty with both this and Strangelands. In the end, Ignited didn't really change my views on Strangelands but, much like it, I would be slightly tempted to check out the next issue. However, I do wonder if having read Ignited before Strangelands might helped me acclimatise to the latter easier.

And so, there you have August (and with it the summer reading) over and done with. Now, I've got to confess, while the overall comics pile could be split right down the middle in terms of my views on them, I found it enjoyable (to varying degrees) going through each of them. In fact, from Resonant to Ignited, all four of these comics were so intriguing that I would happily check out at least one more issue to see if they might be worth my time as a whole because they all offered something special, from a great story, light-hearted vibe or even the start of a shared universe in the vein of the big guns.

Fortunately, I do hope to check all of those further in the future, particularly that shared universe. But we'll say no more on that until September.

so tune in next time folks, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel ;-)