By: Mike Carey & Peter Gross (writer & pencils), M.K. Perker (inks), Chris Chuckry (colors), Todd Klein (letters), Joe Hughes (assistant editor) & Karen Berger (editor)
The Story: The War of the Words begins as Tom Taylor starts to fight back against the Cabal.
Five Things:
1. Tom Taylor has the power! After spending 30 issues watching Tom growing in power, it was pretty neat to see him in full-on “beast mode”. He knows what he is now and has also learned a really interesting method to augment his powers. Of course, he’s lacking in experience and that might come back to bite him, but talent and power go a LONG way.
2. Tom’s friends make for a pretty good team. Of course, we’re used to seeing Tom accompanied by his loyal friends, Lizzie and Richie (what a relief that they haven’t become a love triangle, huh?). So, it’s no surprise that they’re going to be at his side as he begins to take down the Cabal. But, it was pretty neat to see that he has Frankenstein’s monster helping as well. That certainly enhances the power of the team. Frank is also an interesting addition because he’s kinda a literary construct like Tom (although I’m not sure that I’m intelligent enough to figure out if this is what the creators are going for).
3. Kinda slow otherwise. It may be a personal problem of mine, but I always feel that stories need to speed up as they approach a climax. The simple fact is that the audience/reader anticipates the climax and doesn’t want to wait very long once it begins. Even though a story (in its entirety) is about the journey, the climax is very much about reaching the climax. So, it wouldn’t hurt my feelings if these series of issues picked up the pacing a little bit.
4. Really nice art. For the most part, the art is really understated. There’s not a lot of flashy art going on in Unwritten, but conversely, you almost never get confused by the action. Every panel is just masterful sequential storytelling and there is a LOT to be said for that. And, just to show that he’s got serious chops too, Gross does whip out a really sweet double page spread showing the inside of someone’s mind. This panel is really impressive from a design and layout standpoint.
5. Pretty good cover. There’s not a whole lot else to say about the issue, so let’s (again) give a nice round of applause for the covers in this series. We comic fans have been trained that cover art is nothing but pin-ups that may or may not having anything to do with the story, but Yuko Shimizu consistently bangs out wonderful covers for Unwritten.
Conclusion: Even though I would like to see the pacing quicken, I really can’t fault the quality of this issue. Well done story, the good guys starting to kick ass and nice art.
New reader friendliness: Okay. It is beginning a new story arc, but you’d be much better served to start a series like this at #1 by buying the trade paperbacks or reading them digitally via Comixology.
Grade: B
– Dean Stell
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