The Webcomics Weekly #186: It’s Gotta Be May (5/17/2022 Edition)

The Webcomics Weekly is back in your life. This week we take a unique look at “The Uniques” and return to check up on our brush work with “Brush Stroke”. As well as a loreful look at “Lore Olympus”.

When I last checked in on “Brush Stroke”, May was still reeling from her new life and so was I, both critical, and relieved, by the comics’ faster pace. While we’re still moving at a good clip, I think Kubert has found her footing, though it did take until after a brief arc wherein May learns the dangers of an exploitative work-for-hire situation. Comics wise, she was there for a quarter of what’s out now, but it felt more like one or two episodes. Again, I don’t mind this but I did notice it.

I’ve also noticed that, once we get to episodes 16 & 17, the comic becomes more ambitious. The plot is starting to get more twisty, with threads being hinted at then dropped for a bit before being picked back up – like with Devon’s past, a mysterious potential new employee, and Logan being mopey and everyone taking to task. I’m particularly happy with the way Kubert is developing Devon. It’s a subtle shift but he’s shown to be more vulnerable, his attitude an act, and crucially, that act has softened just enough to no longer be setting off my “this dude needs a punch in the face” alarms. As a romantic lead, it situates him so that he can still have his flaws and make serious mistakes but then be taken to task for those mistakes instead of let off the hook because they’re meant to indicate his gruff, “cool” demeanor.

Kubert’s art, too, has improved. Her range of facial expressions has expanded out, allowing a greater depth of emotion to be conveyed, and she’s taking more risks with those expressions and how she portrays a scene. It doesn’t always work – I’m not a huge fan of the black & white thumbnail-esque panels – but the variety keeps “Brush Stroke” feeling fresh. Again, the chalk drawing sketches are lovely and impressionistic, adding just that extra touch of melancholy to a work that enjoys its goofiness quite a bit.

I’m glad to see that “Brush Stroke” continues to improve and to not rest on what makes Kubert comfortable. It gives me high hopes for the rest of the series and has me thoroughly invested in seeing what comes next.

This arc of Lore Olympus is called “It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye.” But the paparazzi character who actually lost an eye features in very little of the four-episode arc, and doesn’t actually do anything besides get his eye back. (Somehow. I’m not clear on where the eye came from. Hades just happens to have kept the eye? In a baggie? I know I’m not meant to think about this too hard but I can’t help it, this particular plot detail will not leave my brain.)

In these four episodes, Hades and Persephone finally agree to take a break, Ross and Rachel-style. (I’m assuming it’ll work out as well as that arrangement did.) Other than the agreement not to continue their flirting at work and the aforementioned eye return, not much happens. The conversation between the two leads seems awkward and goes on far too long, with lots of half-starts and confessions that don’t amount to much. Their conversation felt like some of the fanfiction I’ve read – heartfelt, but too long and without substance or relevance to the overall plot.

Persephone seems to lose control of her powers again in the hospital while she witnesses Hades performing the eye-return, seeming to channel his former godly self from his life before becoming King of the Underworld. And honestly, I’m just tired of Persephone losing control. She’s young, yes, but female characters losing control of their powers because they’re too emotional is a sexist trope and I’m just, honestly, tired of seeing it. She is also drawn in a different way here than she has been in the past, and I’m again not sure if this is an intentional shift in the art style or a mistake. When Hades and Persephone are speaking in his imaginary realm, she looks more adult and somehow much more round than she has before. It may simply be the artist’s style shifting as she grows and develops the series but at times it can be jarring.

Although I’ve talked about how it’s difficult to keep track of all the characters in Lore Olympus, this arc makes me realize how essential it is for minor characters to appear. Without them, scenes with the main duo endlessly talking simply don’t hold my interest the way they did in the very beginning of the comic, and I’m hoping the next batch will bring back something in the way of an overarching conflict to drive the plot forward.

The Uniques
Episodes 1-3
Schedule: Mondays
By Comfort and Adam (art and story) Color Flats by various
Reviewed by Michael Mazzacane

I’ve been looking for an excuse to read “The Uniques” for a while now and with the catch up to “Lavander Jack” it’s time to follow this strip by Comfort and Adam, at least for a little bit. What initially hooked me for the series was their pitch of it being a modern day “Teen Titans” something from the era of Reality Unscripted TV, which drew associations for to “Young Blood” as well.

At least at the start “Uniques” feels like the interesting point on the diagram between Top Cow (“Rising Spirits”), Mark Millar, and millennial humor. But without the unsavory exploitative bits of the latter examples. While the art evokes that late 90s-early 00s digital sheen, cartoon character design, with a dash of manga, it consciously undercuts the potential for cheesecake bullshit. This is a long running strip, these strips are going to be 4 years old come July, but at least right now that art style isn’t working that well in the vertical strip format. It evokes the widescreen aesthetic of Image comics but only in fits and starts with a few key vertical panels that show what could be in a while. As it is in this first trio of strips there is a uniform boxy quality that is functional if kind of uninteresting. It’s effective in the first two strips as Telepath tries to escape a mysterious facility due to the claustrophobia it elicits but I wouldn’t call that intentional. This art style might not be for everyone, but it stands out on Webtoon and to a degree indie comics in general.

While the art and design might leave some readers wanting, Comfort and Adam do the right thing and get me as a reader invested in Telepath as a character. It’s just understandable the tension between her and her parents, a cross country telepathic conversation just before her hero parents are about to take part in a big public ceremony. Replace the telepathy with a cell phone and it’s a tale as old as time … and then 9/11 happens. Like I said Mark Millar feels like an influence.

“The Uniques” is off to an effective start. It isn’t some formal or narrative redefinition of the superhero strip but it does what it needs to do well.