By: Nate Cosby & Ben McCool (writers), Breno Tamura (artist), Kevin Colden & Jordie Bellaire (colors), Rus Wooton (letters)
The Story: A bunch of Cuban-born agents are trying to break into a prison to kill someone.
Three Things:
1. I feel like I missed an issue! – This isn’t necessarily the writers’ fault. I’m pushing 40, read a lot of comics and have a bajillion things going on in my life. So I DO lose the plot thread of comics sometimes and it isn’t the writers’ fault. That being said, I’m kinda lost and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Here’s what I know about the series [SPOILERS]: The President’s arm gets cut off at some point and last issue these Cuban agents were killing a Congressman and his mistress. So, I don’t understand why – in this issue – they’re trying to break into a prison to kill an inmate. What does this have to do with the plot? And there’s this Nazi inmate who seems important, but I don’t think I’ve seen him before. When I harp on this kinda thing, there is always someone who pops up to give the answers in the comment thread and I’m not debating whether some people can keep track of the plot, but the writers need to do a better job of recapping the action if they want to sell this as a single issue comic. I’m sure it’ll read better in collected form, but if you’re selling it to me as a single issue I must review it as a single issue.
2. I want to know about the severed arm, dammit! – This is mostly an issue with pacing of the series. The first issue had that awesome reveal on the final page where we learned that somehow these Cuban agents had chopped off the arm of the US President. That’s the mystery I want answers to. I don’t really care about how some of the agents are more committed to the cause than others or any of their personal dynamics. Further, I don’t see how this story is leading us toward the President.
3. The art is pretty good. – There are elements I really like about the art. I love that it is loose and alive. It gives all of these characters a vibrance. Tamura also draws a very pretty woman without making her look like a sexed up pornstar-thing. My only complaint is that it seems like too often the characters have gritted teeth. In summary, the art is very serviceable.
Conclusion: I want to like this series more than I’m actually enjoying it. Usually when I lose a plot thread it means that the story is taking too long to get from point A to point B and I really want to know the answer to that mystery from Issue #1, but I don’t feel like we’re headed in that direction. Isn’t this a six-issue miniseries? I feel like we should be close to a climax, but we don’t seem to be.
Grade: C
-Dean Stell
Musing: Artists must get better about drawing firearms in this “real world” espionage stories. There are pictures of these things on Google and that revolver on the cover wouldn’t fire because the bullets couldn’t leave the cylinder because it has no holes in it.
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Filed under: Image Comics Tagged: | Ben McCool, Breno Tamura, Dean Stell, Image, Jordie Bellaire, Kevin Colden, Nate Cosby, Pigs, Pigs #5, Pigs #5 review, review, Rus Wooton
I actually really liked this. I didn’t think of the congressman thing, I should reread this issue. This is an ongoing series, not six issues. I really liked the art in this issue, I think the artist is getting much better with each issue. I’d probably give it a B.
Ohhh….well, the fact that it isn’t 6-issues changes things a lot. For one thing, it makes the story pacing more clear.
But, it probably means I’ll drop this. I don’t hate it, but I don’t love it enough to keep it on my pull list at the LCS. I’m trying to read more of my comics on my iPad because it means you’re never committed: If you want to download it, it’s there. If you want to read something else, you don’t have pull-list comics that you feel obligated to read.