I finished cleaning the garage, showered. Now, I’m drinking tea. Here’s the latest … Black Cloak #1-6 by Kelly Thompson and Meredith McClaren … I wanted to enjoy this one more than I did. The covers are all so sleek. The interior art by Meredith McClaren is vibrant, lush, and distinct. It looks like bright fruit sugar water caught and held inside round lines and shapes. It really catches your eye. But the story just isn’t there, for me. At least not in this series’ first arc. The decision to center this opening chapter around a murder mystery does well to bring the reader into this fantastical, sci-fi world up from the ground level, in its streets and hidden meeting spots. But the flow and the plot points of this detective story feel played out and predictable. Or I don’t know … It just reads as a means to an end, a way to get the story going. Another mix-up of genres. It doesn’t feel particularly inspired or energized. That said, the choice does lead to an interesting outcome with where this first arc ends up. The detectives solve their case, but the city crumbles because of the answer. This shake-up introduces a power struggle between various parties for the future of this fictional society. And this conflict is only made possible because multiple people made poor decisions and kept them secret. The series seems set up to explore the rationalizations the powerful employ to make their choices. That thematic concept does kind of save it for me. So, I might have to give it another arc. We’ll see … The Lonesome Shepherd by James Collier is worth checking out. The cartooning in this comic book is very lucid, very wandering. Light line work, a limited use of color, and plenty of blank, open space. I took the story as an allegory for pursuing the life you want, even if it appears as failure and leads to loneliness? Which totally feels like something a cartoonist would say … But I don’t know. I’m not entirely sure what James Collier intends to be the exact point of his comic, but the ending felt open to interpretation. You’re left to wonder whether this lonesome shepherd, our main character, is leading the life he craves or is actually only pretending to be. The comic does a good job, too, to subtly ridicule certain annoying personality traits of the self-righteous, those out there being a “wanderer,” getting to the truth. But it very quickly finds the cracks in these people for you to reach through and empathize with. If James Collier ever makes another comic, I’ll take a look! … Nightwing #105 by Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo ain’t a bad time. Am I being overly positive? I don’t think so. This special first-person POV issue, where you, the reader, experience the story as the titular hero, Nightwing, feels fresh, even if this narrative trick has been pulled somewhere else before. If so, I haven’t seen it, but I haven’t read everything. In this instance, I feel like it lends to Tom Taylor’s ongoing attempts to explore the personal lives of these mainstay superhero characters. The use of first-person POV helps in this regard, at least to visualize a superhero plot from their vantage point. It literally puts us in their shoes … It’s refreshing. It hits familiar beats without sounding tired.
alec reads comics 