By: Geoff Johns and Peter J. Tomasi (writers), Ivan Reis, Scott Clark, Joe Prado, (artists), Oclair Albert, David Beaty (inkers)
The Story: A Change is Gonna Come: Professor Stein gets to the bottom of the secret of the Firestorm matrix, but is he too late? And Aquaman and Black Manta and Mera’s sister are all hunting the new Aqualad.
What’s Good: You’ll notice right off that the number of artists and inkers has dropped in the credits. Since the issue only deals with two plot threads, you only need two artistic teams and both do tell the story well. As always, the Aquaman/Mera thread shows off the best art. The realism, emotiveness and textures of the faces, whether it’s Jackson, his dad, Aquaman, or Mera, are all top notch. The camera angles shift quickly from bird’s eye to hubcap eye in a way that pulls the reader along the page. The shadowing and colors, especially the night time pursuit, the claustrophobic underwater and the closeness of Stein’s lab, were all effective in setting the mood and contributing to the narrative.
Johns and Tomasi scored in this issue not with the action, but just with a sense of movement. The pace seemed suddenly fast again, with both the revelations (Firestorm and Aqualad) and the actual external, physical action (Black Manta, Jackson fleeing, and what happened in the Firestorm scene near the end). This was good fun. It happened because we saw nothing of Boston Brand, Hawk, Dove, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman, or Hawkgirl. Focus is good. I get the feeling that this story will read a lot better in a giant trade format than it does as a biweekly, simply because there’s only so much you can do with six or seven sub-plots and character arcs in 44 pages a month.
What’s Not So Good: I thought the Firestorm art was functional, but lacked the aspiration of textured realism that really connects to me. And on writing, I am increasing suspicious of where Johns and Tomasi are going with Firestorm. I liked the development at the end of the book, but I’m starting to get my fill of comic book characters that can destroy the universe if they don’t keep in perfect control. I hope Johns and Tomasi know what they’re doing.
Conclusion: Fun issue. Good momentum. Pick it up.
Grade: B
-DS Arsenault
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