By Conor McCreery and Anthony Del Col (writers), Andy Belanger (art), Ian Herring (colors), Chris Mowry (letters)
The Story: Juliet and Othello lead their ragtag band of Prodigals against Richard’s army, with predictably dire results. Things explode, people die, and Lady Macbeth uses her dark magic to ensure that the Prodigals remain on the defensive. Meanwhile, Hamlet must figure out how to deal with the oddly listless Shakespeare, who refuses to surrender or make use of his quill.
What’s Good: This is the closest that Kill Shakespeare has come to an all-out action issue, and boy do they make up for lost time! The battle scenes strike an excellent balance between the epic, Helm’s Deep style clash, and the more intimate (at times downright claustrophobic) nature of the forest setting. It also serves to put our heroes in the middle of the biggest and most immediacy crisis they’ve yet faced–victory, it seems, is nearly unattainable for them without some sort of divine intervention. (Which I assume–or at least, hope–will come next issue, in the form of Shakespeare joining the battle and riding to the rescue in a Crowning Moment of Awesome.)
Andy Belanger unleashed on these scene of chaos, war and evil magic is a sight to behold. I’ve been critical of specific elements of his work in this past, but this is clearly the sort of material he was born to bring to life. The battle scenes are equal parts beautifully fantastical, and all too tragically realistic. Belanger has always seemed at his best when given a lot of room to stretch his pencils, and he gets plenty of it here–double splash pages, unique horizontal panel layouts, half-page panels, all used to excellent effect. Ian Herring deserves a great deal of credit as well, for helping bring the pencils to life with his vibrant, and occasionally downright violent, coloring.
What’s Not So Good: My only real complaints have to do with small personal issues I take with the way a few of the characters (especially Shakespeare) behave. This is hardly fair as objective criticism, though; just because McCreery and Del Col’s Shakespeare doesn’t act the way I would have written him if I were writing doesn’t make it bad or wrong. Having my expectations thwarted is something that rarely happens while reading a mainstream comic, so this is actually something I’m savoring. I really can’t wait to see how this plays out. Two more months…
Conclusion: Ten issues in, and McCreery and Del Col’s versions of the Bard’s famous characters have firmly established themselves in their own universe. Watching them plot, fight, talk and interact is a true treat, both as a fan of the original source material and as a fan of the comic book medium. (And speaking of the source material, a personal hope was answered for me when Iago finally, finally quoted my favorite line from Othello: the simple, but so deceptively deep, “I am not what I am.”) I’m not sure how you’re going to catch up at this point if you’re not on board already, but the conclusion that’s being set up here looks to be well worth the price of admission, and the yearlong commitment. (JMS, take note: THIS is how you hold an audience’s attention for twelve issues.)
Grade: A
-SoldierHawk
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