By Conor McCreery and Anthony Del Col (writers), Andy Belanger (art), Ian Herring (colors) and Chris Mowry (letters)
The Story: Hamlet and Falstaff complete their escape, and arrive at The Bottom’s Up, a tavern in which Juliet Capulet and Othello are busy recruiting fighters for the resistance against Richard and Macbeth. Of course, Richard’s men—led by Don John, one of his trusted lieutenants—are close on their heels. Much cursing and fighting ensues, and Hamlet is very nearly killed in the pandemonium and confusion. Luckily for the would-be Shadow King, his good and oh so honest friend Iago appears just in time to save his life. This ends up sending the Prince from the frying pan and into the fire, though, when Othello catches sight of his old nemesis.
What’s Good: The storytelling in this book has been at a solid ten on the story amplification scale since #2. This issue successfully pulls a Spinal Tap and cranks that up to 11. The pieces are in place, the setup and exposition is over and done with and—with the exception of some nice character introductions—this issue is pure, 100% story through and through. On a purely visceral level, it’s a very exciting set of events to watch unfold. (Full disclosure: the fact that my #1 anticipated event for this series—the meeting between Iago and Othello—happened here helped up the dramatic tension at the end a great deal, too.)
The introduction of Othello and Juliet is very well handled. As the apparent brawn and brains (respectively) of the resistance movement, they complement each other very well. I especially enjoy the way the writers capture Othello’s high speech, and contrast it with the animalistic ferocity he displays in battle. That’s an element of the character that even professional theatre companies don’t always successfully convey.
In addition to the excellent plotting, it’s very clear that McCreery and Del Col have become very comfortable writing the hybrid-old English style dialog that the setting demands. Not only are they writing more smoothly, each character has really started to shine with a voice of their own. One of my criticisms of the first issue was that all of the characters sounded quite alike—generic Shakespearean-sounding dialog. No more. It’s gotten to the point where I can identify characters by the way they speak, without having to see where the word bubble is pointing. Seeing the growth in confidence in these two writers has been one of my favorite non-story related things about this series to date.
What’s Not So Good: I love the artwork Belanger has provided for this book, but it remains frustratingly inconsistent. The last issue was absolutely beautiful, and contained some of the most breathtaking pages I have seen comics. This issue, unfortunately, is a definite step backwards, especially when it comes to the characters’ faces. Almost every close-up feels either under detailed and oddly proportioned. I’m not quite sure what happened between last issue and this, but I hope it can be rectified by #5.
My final point isn’t actually a criticism, but I do find it curious. I really like the fact that the creators have introduced a strong female role into the book, but I do wonder what made them choose Juliet as (apparently) one of the rebellion’s figureheads. She’s no wimp in Romeo and Juliet of course…but she’s also only 14 in the play. With other female Shakespearean characters like Viola, Portia or Rosalind out there, casting Juliet as the book’s warrior-female seems like an odd choice. She does have the most name recognition of Shakespeare’s women of course, and it could be that the creators have other plans for some of the others I mentioned, but watching Juliet of all people kicking ass and battling evil soldiers was certainly worthy of a raised eyebrow or two. (And, it’s worth noting, was the only time I felt like any of the Shakespearean characters were truly not acting like themselves, as dictated by the plays.)
Conclusion: Not quite as strong as issue #3 overall, but still well worth a purchase. The creators are on a roll, and I don’t think anyone who is even mildly interested in this series is going to want to miss out on where the story is going.
Grade: B
-SoldierHawk
Grade
Conclusion