There’s a lot to cover on Wednesdays. We should know, as collectively, we read an insane amount of comics. Even with a large review staff, it’s hard to get to everything. With that in mind, we’re back with Wrapping Wednesday, where we look at some of the books we missed in what was another great week of comics.
Let’s get this party started.
Written by Chip Zdarsky
Illustrated by Marco Checchetto
Colored by Marcio Menyz
Lettered by VC’s Clayton Cowles
Reviewed by Alexander Jones
Chip Zdarsky is attempting to draw a straight line between the major status quo shifts in his “Daredevil” run with Marco Checchetto. Unfortunately, the radical plot twists and meandering focus of the series do not allow for the visceral gut-punch issue #25 was hoping to offer readers. I love a great plot twist but part of the reason twists in comic books work is because of the foreshadowing. “Daredevil” attempts to justify the changes in this issue to work based on the themes of the story. While thematically I appreciate what Zdarsky accomplishes by using Matthew Murdock’s guilt as an essential piece of the story, I don’t think the plotting quite holds up.
Marco Checchetto’s illustration work is a huge part of what makes this title so derivative. Checchetto has drawn “Daredevil” in the past and his run with Zdarsky lacks the fresh creative energy that his best Marvel work has. The fight scenes are easy to follow and page layouts are creative but we’ve seen this all before. Checchetto also seems to have a difficult time when the action slows down and a lot of emotion is required on the page. The book’s pacing speeds up during the action sequences nicely. While the interior art in “Daredevil” #25 is solid, it isn’t breaking any new ground. This is the problem with Zdarsky’s script as well. This story mirrors plot points of runs on the character from creators like Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark really closely.
Arguably the biggest supporting player in this installment is Elektra. Elektra’s relationship with Matthew still feels a bit uninspired. To give credit to Zdarsky’s writing there’s a small twist towards the end that justifies a bit of the derivative back-and-forth between Elektra and Matthew. These aforementioned scenes show a legitimately new place for Elektra to occupy Matthew’s life. I don’t object to any of the plot changes introduced by Zdarsky, I mainly worry that he and Marvel’s editorial team are not going to stick with these radical ways that Daredevil’s life has been changed. Based on the two dozen installments proceeding this one having similar problems, I can’t see Zdarsky changing course now. I yearn for Zdarsky and Checchetto to lean into what makes their run on “Daredevil” unique instead of relying on what The Marvel Universe has already established for Matthew Murdock.
Final Verdict: 5.4 – “Daredevil” #25 promises big changes but isn’t ready to show them off yet.
Written by Christopher Cantwell
Illustrated by Filipe Andrade
Colored by Chris O’Halloran
Lettered by VC’s Joe Caramagna
Reviewed by Jodi Odgers
“Fantastic Four: Road Trip #1” leans into the final word of its title harder than a tourist straining to see the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
After a disturbing first page flash-forward, the one-shot shows the Richards/Storm/Grimm family unit crammed in a car, on the way to the aforementioned wonder of nature. They have had some intense adventures of late, and they deserve a break. However, Reed wants to make one quick stop on the way to examine an unusual nearby meteor crater and take some samples. Oh, Reed.
What follows is a succinct and terrifying deconstruction of the Fantastic Four family and their powers. Cantwell brilliantly breaks each character down, and Andrade is up to the task of bringing the trippy experience to the page. His expressive, detailed linework suits the rough-edged, gritty story well. Chris O’Halloran’s decision to use simple solid colors with limited gradients gives the story a down-to-earth feel, which makes the fantastical events within “Fantastic Four: Road Trip #1” all the more disturbing. Joe Caramagna accentuates key moments with well-placed effects, with my personal favorite being the sound of Ben Grimm snoring giving a sense of peace and mundanity to a moment before the story ramps up in earnest.
Continued belowThe story of “Fantastic Four: Road Trip” #1 works so well because all consequences flow from the flaws of the characters within the story, in this case, Reed’s curiosity. Without Reed’s unquenchable thirst for knowledge, there would be no need to tell this tale – it would be nothing more than a family trip to the Grand Canyon. Instead, we get one of the most unique Fantastic Four stories in a long while.
Final Verdict: 9.1 – A hum-drum holiday turns into a compelling case of body horror for Marvel’s First Family.
Written by Donny Cates
Illustrated by Ryan Stegman
Inks by JP Mayer
Colored by Frank Martin
Lettered by Clayton Cowles
Reviewed by Quinn Tassin
It’s pretty clear that Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman are a match made in heaven. They’re masters of atmosphere, building intense, action-packed, resonant comics together with remarkable consistency. Their ability to put together such strong, memorable content together is a big part of why “King in Black #1” was one of the most exciting Marvel announcements of this year. It’s just a shame that it’s so inconsistent. This is an extremely fun, visually stunning issue to be sure but Stegman seems to want conflicting things out of it. On the one hand, it’s the much-dreaded arrival of Knull, who we’ve been warned is an unstoppable force time and time again. On the other hand, it seems to want to pull a sense of security away from us as readers.
Tony is surprised when his giant bomb doesn’t work but where did his confidence come from in the first place? Everyone is smug when they call on Sentry and shocked when he’s taken down but how can you be smug when you’ve also recruited every other hero you can because of what a big threat Knull and his forces are? You can’t beat people over the head with the notion that a villain is impossible to beat and then act like things aren’t going as expected when that same villain isn’t being beaten. And the thing is the dread works! The idea that they’re pulling everything they can together and they’re still the underdogs is compelling and tonally wrenching in the best way. But Cates doesn’t lean all the way into the dread and the issue suffers for it.
The art is to die for, of course. Stegman, with inks from JP Mayer and Colors from Frank Martin, does wonderful work communicating the scale of the threat with beautiful, inventive pages brimming with energy. The X-Men arrival, the symbiote dragon flying through flames, the Knull-controlled Celestials, and the Sentry murder would all be the main set pieces in any single issue so getting them all packed into one story is a total treat.
“King in Black” is likely going to be a decent miniseries at the very least. This issue is pretty decent overall! But it needs to get itself together if it wants to get all the way there. Here’s hoping Cates has it in him.
Final Verdict: 6.8- “King in Black” is an epic, narratively uneven, visually stunning affair that seems to be setting itself up for something even better.
Written by Vita Ayala
Illustrated by Ariel Olivetti
Colored by Trish Mulvihill
Lettered by Pat Brosseau
Reviewed by Gregory Ellner
As the first Wonder Woman-based Dark Multiverse story after others based in the mythos of Batman, Superman, or other famous DC Universe events, one would assume that such a tale would be interesting on its own merits and more than capable of standing up on its own to show a special kind of horror that would not be seen in the others’ tales. Unfortunately, while the start of this new take on ‘War of the Gods’ may seem enough to entice the readership, the entire enterprise sadly falls apart. Vita Ayala tries to tell a story about Wonder Woman and her descent, but for the vast majority of the story, Diana of Themyscira is relegated to a backseat, vulnerable and weak while others take control. The longer the story goes on, the more it seems almost as though Wonder Woman is a secondary character in a story that should be her own. Even in parts about her, the villains’ actions are so heavy-handed and obvious that they almost appear to be a parody of something scary. On top of all of this, there is a definite air of the story being told in 2020, rather than in the early 1990s as it originally was, with tangential references to cultural influences (both historical and fictional) which would not exist back then, almost as though the story were leading off of something inspired by ‘War of the Gods’ rather than continuing from said story arc.
Continued belowDespite the story’s problems, Ariel Olivetti does a good job of portraying emotional turmoil. From a villain’s sadistic smirk to a hero’s outrage, horror, or despair, it is easy to see what the story was going for, if not its eventual execution. There is a lot of pathos throughout all much of the art, especially in the lead-up to the switch of perspective and the true horror to come. Even the bodies of the dead are given a kind of emotional weight to them when viewed in close-ups, along with the tears that fall on many an occasion throughout the plot.
Trish Mulvihill also pulls the story together with her colors, from the muted colors of one dead woman’s eyes to the pitch black of another few. Light plays a large part in how the events are portrayed, from a bright light down on a scene akin to a spotlight on a stage to a violent explosion of color for a missile detonation. All in all, these colors are likely the highlight of the entire piece.
Final Verdict: 6.0– Though somewhat interesting on the surface, this story falls to pieces due to its focus and implicit modernity.
