By: Simon Oliver (story), Robbi Rodriguez (art), Rico Renzi (colors)
The Story: Rosa throws her enemies for a loop.
The Review: Having just reviewed Fairest #22, I’ve suddenly realized that FBP as a whole suffers from the same problems that plague Marc Andreyko’s current arc on Fairest, namely erratic pacing. Neither Andreyko nor Oliver write any inherently poor material; at bottom, they have perfectly acceptable ideas. Yet both seem to suffer a lack of instinct as to when a little more world-building is necessary for their stories to truly take off.
Lord knows I have my problems with excess, repetitive exposition, but that’s not to say exposition never has its place in a story. For example, if you have a clear antagonist, it’s perfectly appropriate to explore her background a little more, just so the reader has an idea of why she matters and how much. Without this kind of groundwork, villains like Lily are simply an instrument of the narrative, their importance limited to driving the protagonist to action. By the end of the issue, you nothing more about Lily than she’s a murderous thief with an equally murderous boyfriend, of whom we know even less.
Oliver seems to be in a real hurry to blast through his story, for no reason at all. It’s not as if we’re rewarded with a major revelation once Rosa’s affair with Lily abruptly ends. All we get is Adam receiving a file on Lance Blackwood, and considering all we know about Blackwood is that he once videotaped Adam’s dad, it’s pretty difficult to muster any enthusiasm over the development. It’s even harder when Oliver throws it in at the last minute with no details whatsoever, leaving you no more knowledgeable than before. It’s a scene that has no effect on the issue at all, which makes you wonder why Oliver forced it in to begin with.
If he’d gotten rid of it, he could have at least had another page to draw out Rosa locking horns with the cocky Lily. But let’s be honest here. What Oliver really needed to do was give this arc another issue, maybe two, before having Rosa send Lily and her erstwhile beau to the space-time beyond. Given how quickly Rosa extracts herself from the coercive situation, you get the sense that at no point was she ever at risk. This is a problem for a character whose unemotional demeanor already makes her seem like someone who isn’t threatened by anything.
Yet Lily does manage to make Rosa cooperate, at least temporarily, by threatening one Kara Reyes, even though Rosa denies having any family. I should hope Oliver will explain that little detail at some point, but to be frank, I don’t care enough to wait. Not only has Oliver completely failed to make any of the cast—Adam, Cicero, Rosa—defined enough for your attachment, he neglects to sell the bonds between them. The trio’s dramatic walk away from the illegal wormhole operation they just shut down is supposed to indicate their newfound togetherness, but it’s completely unconvincing. The way Oliver writes it, Adam and Cicero show up simply out of professional courtesy on Rosa’s by-the-book request. If there’s any real sentiment to be had, it’s miniscule and well-hidden.
It’s a pity that Oliver is still falling short in the scripting, as Rodriguez is just starting to get comfortable with the series. His lines no longer seem as frail as they used to do, and they stand up to Renzi’s warm, funky colors better than ever. Notice, too, that Rodriguez’s emotional range has expanded significantly, although sadly, only Lily seems to benefit from that improvement; our FBP agents rarely drift from their impassive expressions.
Conclusion: If I was a different kind of comic book reader, I might be tempted to stick with the series for Rodriguez’s art, but Oliver’s writing is simply too disenchanting for me to pretend to care. Dropped.
Grade: C
-Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: – For an unrepentant murder, Frank Canet seems to be a rather meek, go-with-the-flow type of guy, doesn’t he?
– It’s worth noting that Lily’s henchmen are wearing face masks reminiscent of the Mark Twain lookalike who manipulated Jay all that time.
Grade
Conclusion