by Jason Aaron (writer), Ron Garney (pencils), Jason Keith & Matt Milla (colors), and Cory Petit (letters)
The Story: Can a Deathlok find salvation?
What’s Good: Without a doubt, the main Deathlok focused upon last month is the strongest point of this issue, as he takes center-stage yet again. He makes for an unlikely protagonist, but a compelling one, as Aaron turns the tables by making the human inside the cyborg the sociopathic monster, while the AI is the empathetic side, showing an interest in humanity and emotion. In the end, it’s a clever move by Aaron, as he makes the machine component of the Deathlok more human than the actual human component. The end result is a robot that’s easy to root for and has allied itself with humanity, and as we learned from Terminator 2, that’s badass.
Much of this is accomplished through a fantastic use of textboxes, which act almost as parallel thought bubbles, or even conversations between the AI and the killer inside the Deathlok. The slow, coming to consciousness for the AI is elegantly done and its eventual superseding of the killer’s mind feels appropriately momentous. Once the AI is firmly in control, Aaron does a great job in making those textboxes feel claustrophobic and trapping, as the killer’s dialogue goes totally ignored, those textboxes become a kind of prison where the character is locked away.
Garney again delivers his trademark, gritty work that remains a perfect fit for this book. His figures, his Deathloks in particular, continue to look hardened and his action is always well done.
What’s Not So Good: As with many ill-fated comics based around time travel, this final issue ends up becoming convoluted and a bit confusing. For instance, until it’s clarified late in the issue, for a while it seems as though our central Deathlok is in two places/times simultaneously. Frankly, even by issue’s end, I still only feel like I think I understand how this phenomenon occurred (or didn’t occur). Given that this was a central component to the book’s plot, that’s not a good thing. The book ends up seeming jumbled and rushed, as though Aaron had too much to do and got lost.
There are other little problems as well. For instance, why was Wolverine so quick to trust the suddenly reformed Deathlok? Then there’s the fact that the pre-Deathloked young boy mysteriously changes clothes midway through the book, despite there not really being a gap in time or a break in action long enough to allow for this. Since it’s not referenced, I’m thinking that this was an art gaffe.
Speaking of the art, it’s almost as though Garney ran out of steam this month. While his characters still look good, it’s impossible not to notice that many panels don’t have backgrounds; it’s just characters in front of single colors. Given that this is the last issue of the arc, I can’t help but wonder if this was corner-cutting to meet deadlines.
And really, “running out of steam” is sort of how I feel about Aaron’s script as well. The time travel confusion is matched with other bits of sloppy writing. Why do the Deathloks, so formidable over the past few issues, suddenly become complete pushovers this month? Then there’s the ending, with it’s “shocking” last page reveal of the General’s identity, which I think every reader had already completely figured out by the end of last month. The only thing that I found surprising about this ending was that Aaron still expected it to be surprising.
Conclusion: Probably the most underwhelming issue of an otherwise awesome series.
Grade: C –
-Alex Evans
Grade
Conclusion