Written by Rob Williams
Illustrated by Sana Takeda– Hell is spreading across the Earth from out of Las Vegas.
– Ghost Rider is responsible but what price is she willing to pay to save mankind?!
– X-23, Venom & Hulk must defeat their worst enemies, buying Ghost Rider time to stop hell’s march across the globe!
– As a clone, X-23 has often wondered if she has a soul. This is where she gets her answer!
– Who is Ichor and why has he targeted Venom for Death?!
The X-23 issue (that’s not quite an X-23 issue) of “Circle of Four” hits, and I’m ready to ride this entire storyline down to the depths of Hell. (Or, well, as much as you can do that by reading a comic book, anyway. It’s complicated. Leave me alone.)
Hop behind the cut for some thoughts on the latest issue of Marvel’s month-long Hell-tastic Hell-stravaganza.
In terms of collaboration, I’m not sure you can have a better collection of writers in a thinktank than with the example here of Williams, Parker and Remender (the collective architects of the story). The three men have enough complimentary traits in their writing that not only does the transition between issues read incredibly smooth, but on paper it makes sense — all three writers effectively balance the roles of humor, action and drama within their respective titles to give all their books (Venom, Ghost Rider and Hulk in particular, for this discussion).
Yet X-23 is the stand-out of the bunch. For clarification, this isn’t really “the X-23 issue.” One might assume based on the delineation of roles within the entirety of “Circle of Four” that each character gets about an issues worth of story (admittedly that was my initial assumption), but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Instead, the story flows along as it naturally would, with X-23 merely getting cover focus and a rather good portion of pagetime. This issue in particular is rife with plots focusing on Venom and the Rulk teaming up while Ghost Rider fights her own private battle against Hell.
However, although Sana Takeda illustrated issues #7-12 and #17-19 of her main title, the book is written by Marjorie Liu. This is (to my knowledge) the first time the writers have really used her, and the differences between what Liu has attempted to do with the character (craft a calm, curious and knowledgable yet still vicious character) is rather noticeable to what we have here (a quick to anger and mostly confused character). There is certainly an active element in company-owned comics like this in which different writers bring different elements out of the character, but the results are always varied.
In terms of the script itself, the book very much picks up in tone what Williams had in Ghost Rider. In fact, if this story were a crossover instead of a “self-contained” “event”, this would very much be Ghost Rider #10. The book exudes a grindhouse horror element from every corner, giving the various antithesis characters ample time to get a good smack in on their respective partners. Williams showed previously in the pages of Ghost Rider that he is more than capable of balancing elements of abject terror with a dark comedic angle that ultimately still holds resonance, and this issue is a shining example of it. In many ways, this issue is the Empire Strikes Back issue of the series, in which everything is ultimately incredibly bleak — almost as if Williams was attempting to make it as hard as possible for Parker to pick up the thread of the story in the next issue. “How are they going to get out of this one?” is an understatement.
Takeda’s manga-esque style is an interesting choice here for the book, given the horror theme of the book and the general lack of true horror qualities in Takeda’s art. It both works incredibly well in parts and rather poorly in others; Takeda’s art holds a very bright gloss over it (a particularly noticeable “glow”, if you will) that isn’t particularly apt on monstrous characters like Rulk and Encephalis, yet works wonders for X-23 or even Ghost Rider. While some of the extraneous characters end up with a bit of a model-esque vibe (Hellstrom and Strange, in particular, for the few panels they’re around) to them, the major scenes with Alejandra truly show off Takeda’s skill, especially in terms of colors and expression.
In Rob Williams I trust. Heck, in Remender and Parker I trust as well. “Circle of Four” has been an entertaining and rip-roaring adventure in fire and brimstone, and while this is perhaps the least Venom-esque story you’d expect to see under the Venom banner (and, really, could’ve probably done well as a separate mini, all things considered), the trio of writers are making it work through and through, outside of a few hiccups. Is the portrayal of X-23 on par with the development to her character in the past year? No. Is the art choice for this particular issue good, if not a bit thematically questionable? Sure. But is the book worth buying? Absolutely.
Final Verdict: 7.5 – Buy
