Rating: 2.5/5 – The Ending of This Series Fell Flat For Me.
by ComicSpectrum EiC Bob Bretall.
I really enjoyed the 1st issue of this series, I gave it a 4/5 in the review I wrote. At the end of that review, I wrote: “I loved this issue and if the pay-off lives up to the setup I can see giving the entire series a 5/5. As it sits right now, I’m hedging my bet and giving this a 4/5 as a really solid setup and I’m looking forward to seeing how the entire tale stands up.”
Unfortunately, writer James Tynion IV took a strange turn with the series in issue #2 that was certainly unexpected. Not a bad thing necessarily, I like stories that surprise me, but at the end of it all, we like what we like and I didn’t like the twist in #2. I crossed my fingers and hoped for a strong ending in #3 that I ultimately didn’t get. I think I was hoping for the story to have some pseudo-scientific slant to it that just wasn’t where Tynion wanted to bring the story. Ultimately my lack of enjoyment of this series is something I have to place on myself, I just didn’t like it. I can point to the fact that Tynion kept pulling weird stuff out of nowhere. I’m all for a few red herrings to throw me off the scent, but the storytelling “Law of Conservation of Detail” tells me that I’m right to be bothered when weird plot-critical stuff just seems to get made up as we go along with no foreshadowing.
I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone who is keen to read it (though I’m certainly not going to recommend the series) but the ending simultaneously felt like it left too much unresolved, clipping off in the middle of a thought, while at the same time coming totally out of left field. Not necessarily bad, if you like that sort of thing, but it seems to be something I personally don’t like, so I’m going to be personally a bit more wary of Tynion’s storytelling in future.
Reviewed by: Bob Bretall
(bob@comicspectrum.com)
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