By: Mike Carey & Peter Gross (co-creators), Dean Ormston (finishes), Fiona Stephenson (colors), Todd Klein (letters), Joe Hughes (assistant editor) & Karen Berger (editor)
The Story: Another one of the .5 installments that looks at stories through history.
Three Things:
1. Lots of good nuggets in these .5 issues. – It’s funny, but the .5 issues of this stretch of The Unwritten are much more enjoyable than the “normal” issues that are focusing on our “main” characters. These .5 issues are showing the roots of this Cabal that it trying to rule the world through the power of stories (if that is their goal since it is a little unclear what they’re up to). 30+ issues into this series, we need some answers. That doesn’t mean that Carey and Gross have to end the series, but they need to give the readers some resolutions to mysteries that have been building since issue #1; these .5 issues are doing MUCH more towards that end than the “normal” issues. This issue takes place in ancient Egypt and features Pullman (at least I’m pretty sure it is him) guiding an Egyptian king on a hunt for the Leviathan who gains his powers from consuming stories. Seeing ancient Pullman, the birth of written language, the links between the Leviathan and the WHALE that have appeared throughout this series, the concept that characters can survive their own death via story, etc… It was all very neat.
2. But, kinda slow paced. – This first half of this issue dragged badly to the point where I fell asleep reading it 3 nights in a row before deciding that this was a comic I couldn’t read in my comfy chair in front of the fire at night. That kinda methodical complexity is both The Unwritten’s biggest strength and its biggest weakness. There is a LOT of meat on the bone, but the reader MUST bring more mental focus than for an issue of Astonishing X-Men. All that being said, this issue still had some pacing problems in the first half. I’m not a writer, so I can’t offer too much in the way of suggestions for improvement, but it seems screwed up to have an issue with ~5 really cool things in the last 10 pages yet the first 10 pages put you to sleep 3 nights in a row. And I appreciate that this series is being “written for the trade” but if it’s going to be released in single issues there should be greater effort to make each page of each issue snappier.
3. Lovely art. – I really like how Carey and Gross change up the art for these non-Tom Taylor stories. In the “normal” series, they’ve done this by bringing in Vince Locke to ink some pages, but here they just have a separate inker AND colorist. It gives the comic a very different look and that ensures that we’re in a different frame of mind when we read it. Parts of this issue reminded me of an issue of Hellboy or BPRD. The only negative with the art is that the stylistic change was enough that I wasn’t sure that this character was/is Pullman because we’ve gotten so used to seeing only one artistic depiction of him.
Conclusion: A little awkwardly paced with all the good stuff happening in the second half of the issue. Still, there is a lot of meat on the bone in this issue and series. I have a feeling that if you read this issue just once (while you’re tired), you’re going to miss some stuff. It’s complex and demanding and there certainly is a place for comics like that in the marketplace.
Grade: B-
-Dean Stell
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