What can I say about this weeks POW that Conor hasn’t
already touched on? Though I agree with him that this title should be more
Sci-Fi than Super Hero and Millar certainly handles these characters exceptionally
well, I still think this could have been better.
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Even though I don’t usually find myself being overly
critical of the whole “cover vs. content� debate, I must admit that having the
cover image in no way reflect what happens in this issue pretty annoying. There
was no exodus to Nu-World to be found in this installment, and Sue doesn’t even
appear in the book, let alone Franklin
or Valeria. Could I be nit picking, maybe but it still rubbed me the wrong way,
possibly because a massive evacuation as implied on the cover would have meant
that something major would have happened and we would have been thrust into
action, but this was not the case. Â Instead we were treated to a tour of Nu-World
and arc set-up, part 2. I don’t mean to give the impression that this is a bad
thing by any means, just not what I was expecting or looking forward to based
on the cover image and my own speculation.
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Hitch did a fantastic job penciling the pages for Nu-World,
giving the reader such a grand scope of the project that it was nearly palatable.
I was instantly reminded of the great visuals of Earth 2 in the modern remake
of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and
that’s impressive. These pages might even be too good, because I found that a
lot of the other panels felt somewhat lack-luster in comparison. Take the
battle between Johnny and his new “flame�. (Pardon the pun, but I don’t think
she was given a name yet.) Not only did most of the bridge sequence lack Hitch’s
usual attention to detail, but I’m still not sure what this new female super villain’s
power is. Can she “force push� objects? Maybe she has telekinesis? Perhaps she
can form huge gusts of wind? These are questions that could have been answered
by the art, text, or a combination of the two but we’re left guessing. The fact
that there were no sound effects also felt kind of odd.
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All in all, this was still an enjoyable read and I’m looking
forward to following it, but I do feel that it could have been a little more
solid.
Story: 4 - Very Good
Art: 4 - Very Good