As I reach four days into my holiday, the comics I had burned through consisted of exclusively titles which I had never read before, from These Savage Shores, Black Panther vs. Deadpool and then Sheriff of Babylon.
Therefore, for the last couple of days, I thought I'd focus on a comic which I had before, although not recently.
My fourth reading during my holiday was both volume of Saladin Ahmed and Christian Ward's Black Bolt series, which I had read both volume 1 and volume 2 separately. The series followed the once (and at this point former) King of the Inhumans as he awakes to find himself imprisoned in a facility on the far side of the galaxy. Depowered and tortured by the mysterious jailer, Blackagan Boltagar must ally with his fellow inmates (including Thor bad guy the Absorbing Man) in order to escape and return home to reunite with his Queen, Medusa.
Ever since I first read these two collections, Black Bolt has long been a series I've been wanting to re-read. In fact, so good as I remember it being that I wanted to see if, read together, both volumes correlated a sort of 'greater than the sum of its parts' vibe and maybe even proved itself worthy enough of a physical copy for my shelves.
Well, in the time since I last read this run, it's impact on me hasn't lessened one bit. I once again absolutely adored reading this series. I really enjoyed Saladin Ahmed's writing in this, as he seems to tell the story in an almost fairy-tale tone (I.e. some omnipresent observer telling Blackbolt's story as it happens). In fact, everything about this story has this rather epic vibe to it as we get to see the fragments of a once great king build himself back up and form back into something a little more (in)human.
What I really enjoyed about this series is how Black Bolt is depicted. Usually such a stoic figure whose voice is only ever his wife's, I loved seeing his personality shine through more as the barrier that always kept him in check (his powers) were removed. In fact, it felt like Saladin has saying that all of Black Bolt's problems stemmed from the arms length his powers kept those he loved (Medusa and Ahura specifically). In fact, almost all of the characters were what made this run truly great (well one of the things. The other I'll get to), although the one that really shined for me was Crusher Creel. I knew very little about the Absorbing Man prior to this series but after reading it again, his personality really connected with me and gave me a great appreciation of the character (and of Titiana, who was also fantastic in the second half of the series) that I'm just sorry I can't see more of them (and, yes, Alpha Flight which both star in is on my wishlist... I think).
However, the other thing that really made this series great was Christian Ward's (inter)stellar art. The visuals in this series were breathtaking throughout. I will admit, when I started re-reading this title, I found the art a little jarring and was concerned that this wasn't the comic I remembered. However, that thought process quickly got pushed to the side as I read on with Ward's working perfectly to deliver the prisons dream (or rather nightmare) world aspects incredibly well. In fact, even when the series moves to a more real world environment in the second half, the artwork is so intrinsic to the telling of the story that the nothing about the visuals looks at all out of place. Of course, Ward doesn't take on all of the duties single handed as Frazer Irving and Stephanie Hans jump in at various points. With their work, Irving's works incredibly well when depicting space travel, almost to the level of Ribic's work on Silver Surfer. Meanwhile, Hans' guest spot late on when Blackbolt and Medusa 'meet' has such a Scott Pilgrim meets Romana Flowers in the desert vibe that I think it works perfectly as a dreamscape against Ward's real world.
As I set near the beginning, when I started re-reading Black Bolt in its entirety, it was mainly for the purpose of determining if this was a series that I wanted on my shelf. The truth is, while separately both volumes are excellent in my eyes, the whole truly is greater than the sum of its parts. From my point of view Ahmed and Ward's Black Bolt is a story about a man trying to make up for his mistakes and, because of this, it feels like a story that relates to me perfectly.
Suffice to say, I think I need to get a copy for my shelf ...
... I just I can get the money for it together before my LCS sells their copy.
No comments:
Post a Comment