By: David Hine (story/script), Shaky Kane (story/art) & Richard Starkings (letters)
The Story: The story starts to swirl toward a conclusion as Steve Norman is pursued by the ominous Shadow Men.
What’s Good: The only weak link for The Bulletproof Coffin thus far has been that it was unclear whether there was any sort of real skeleton of a story or whether all this awesome weirdness was just floating in the ether (and could be enjoyed as long as you didn’t really try to put the plot together). That lack of a “story” is something that will bother some people (i.e., the kind of people who were disappointed by the ending of Lost) whereas other are happy to have the wonderfully done send-up of old timey comics.
Well, we start to get a story here. It isn’t complete and you still cannot string all the events together, but you can tell it is happening. And the comic is so fun that you don’t mind the slight gaps. Whereas reading Morrison’s Batman might make you want to throw the comic at the wall, you don’t mind flipping back a few pages in Bulletproof Coffin to revisit a reveal. The difference is that this comic is just pure FUN and is not remotely trying to be serious.
All of the old-fashioned art goodness is still here. Comics like this make you laugh at reviewers who score the “story” and “art” separately. If you had someone like David Finch or Alex Ross illustrate Bulletproof Coffin, the story would fall flat. Kane’s visuals really sell the over-the-top campy dialog that Hine has written. It’s a very good collaboration.
What’s Not So Good: As the story starts to take on greater importance, some of the campiness takes a back seat. This probably won’t matter in issue #6 where the story is tied up, but this issue is a bit transitional so losing some of the fun without having resolution on the story does hurt. But, that’s a pretty classic writing conundrum and this issue is still more fun than most other comics on the stands.
The “fun” of this comic is also starting to wear a bit. No one is sick of it by this point (not by a long shot), but you can see why this is a 6-issue miniseries and not a 100-issue ongoing. Part of the fun is that you don’t get this sort of thing every month, but when it has been your companion since mid-summer, you start to anticipate the comedic beats.
Conclusion: The most fun comic on the stands. Very much looking forward to the finale.
Grade: B+
– Dean Stell
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Conclusion