#400: Resonant #6 - 10

So, we're finally here!! After nine and a half years, I finally reached my 400th blog post. As it reached a bit of a milestone, I thought that maybe I'd start placing a number in the title, just to help me find old posts in the future.

I'll have to be honest, I didn't actually think ì would have anything to write about this week. As was laid put at the end of last week's post, my plan for this week was to focus on a quantitatively BIG review, the fruits of which probably wouldn't have been seen until next week.

However, very little ever goes according to plan in life and, for me, that turned out to be a huge benefit not only for having something to write about but also being able to finish one of my favourite series in recent years with the release of its 10th and final issue.

Resonant #6 - 10 picks up from where the first volume left of, as Paxton and his allies attempt to escape their island based servitude and return to his children, Bec, Ty and Stef find themselves under siege from the church of Maw and must make a stand in order to protect their home until their father's return.

Now I went into these issues with a great deal of enthusiasm and maybe a mild touch of trepidation: I truly loved the first arc and had been eager and anticipating. However, could David Andry, Skylar Patridge, Jason Wordie and Deron Bennett really stick the landing for a comic which had, to me, been so good?

Thankfully, I found the answer to this being 'yes'. I absolutely loved all five issues of Resonant's second half. I found a truly gripping read and ended up burning through at a rate of knots, so eager was I to know what happened next (to the point that I even after going to bed I got back up to read the final issue, such was its pull on me).

I felt that David Andry wrote yet another fantastic arc, one where the focus was less on the waves which had damaged this world and more on the people let behind in it. As Paxton continued his journey back to his kids and those kids continue their mission to survive for his return, it really felt like their was a concerted effort to show us what kind of people could properly survive in this world. I found it curious how everyone we met who could survive the waves were almost sociopathic in their actions, refusing to conform to societal norms. This left me with a theory that maybe the waves were a natural evolution by the planet to handle a growing sense of repression in society whereby people's frustrations with life were too locked up due to how they were expected to act. Therefore, their combined vibe somehow triggered the world to produce an effort to release this tension.

But that's just my theory of course (if it actually makes sense).

Anyway, I loved the characters even more in this volume than the last as so many more of them came into their own. Paxton continued to be a great character and a real bad ass a couple of times over (I'm intrigued about how he learned these particular set of skills) but then many of the other leads stepped up to show chops comparable to him. Both Bec and Ty really came into their own here as both showed that they were more than capable of holding their own in this big, bad world. Meanwhile, Claire became a more intriguing character as her journey took an unexpected detour. I truly thought that this story and the characters within were so complex that I was nothing if not compelled to stay with them until the end in a single night.

Meanwhile I thought Skylar Patridge's art is breathtakingly gorgeous through these issues, as she takes over from Alejandro Aragon without missing a beat. There is something different about her style but I can't put my finger what and even if I could I wouldn't mark as better or worse than what came before. As I think about it, the only thing I can hazard a guess about is that her lines are smoother and Devon Wordie's colours are more grounded, giving the visuals a distinct comparison than with fights or other events of intense emotion which, like the wave scenes, are a lot more erratic in look and colour. However, when all is said and done, it's so subtle a difference with the prior work and still makes this series look insanely beautiful.

Of course, I do have a lot of questions about this world that I'd still love to have answers to. How did the church of Maw come to be, what is the purpose of the 'other' people of the spiral, what becomes of Honcho, how are the congregation seemingly immune? I do feel as if this series could go on and on answering my questions about its wider world.

That said, I tell myself that this series is not about the world but about the Lake family (the name of which is only discovered late in the day and that story is over. Of course, just because one story ends doesn't mean that another set within this world cannot come about.

For now though, while it pains me to say it, Resonant is over but 'wow', what an ending!! If this series does or doesn't continue, I think it has definitely earned its place as a comic that i would recommend people to read.

Hopefully though, we'll see more of Paxton, the kids and this world one day, which that last panel certainly gave me the impression might happen ... one day.

Oh, and before I forget ...

I didn't get any reviews completed as the 'big one' was still being read through (when I said 'big one' I certainly meant it in a quantity sense). However, I did manage to squirrel away 15 minutes to get through Spider-Man: Spider's Shadow #3.

Again, I found this to be a good read. Quieter than the prior issues I thought but that's always the downside of these penultimate instalments (in my opinion) as they are there to set up the finale. That said it was a fine read which continued to look gorgeous and totally defied my expectation that we would still see the symbiote find it's way to Eddie Brock.

I still plan to re-read the entire series when the finale comes out and really break it down but, for now, I'm eager to see the resolution after the cliffhanger from this issue piqued my interest. Hopefully it'll follow through on what's come so far and show these multi-part what ifs are worth my time on future.

I also read Marvel Action: Black Panther #1 - 4 with my son over the course of the week. This IDW licenced Marvel title followed the adventures of the King of Wakanda as he faced off against numerous environmental disasters as an unseen enemy attempts to use them to take over the throne during the first three issues as well as combating greedy workers in the 4th.

Now, much like with Thor and Loki which I read a couple of weeks back, I found this to be a surprisingly good read. I can claim that it was a series with a truly captivating plot, but it was fun and entertaining and had some gorgeously vibrant art and colours. Also, all i could hear was the voice of Lego Black Panther as I read his lines.

I'm really starting to think that these Marvel Action and all-ages Comics are severely underestimated by people. Hopefully I won't make that mistake again as I'll be getting my oldest an upcoming Avengers series.

And that's this past week done. Not much else has filled my time (besides that ongoing review), although I have been working on a new idea which was placed in my head by a tweet from Emma Vieceli. I've put together a basic plot and started to outline it and, hopefully, I can make some headway next week.

As well as finish that review.

And maybe read some other comics.