Flashpoint: Deadman and the Flying Graysons #2 – Review

By: J.T. Krul (writer), Fabrizio Fiorentino & Alejandro Giraldo (artists), Kyle Ritter (colorist)

The Story: Dang it, I thought you said you would never let go!

The Review: You probably have noticed in my reviews that I tend to spend a great deal of time talking up the written features of a comic, with only a perfunctory paragraph on art.  This is in no way meant to demean the artist’s contributions to a comic, but as a writer, I view the script as king.  If you have a weak script, it won’t matter what kind of visuals you put in.  It can be the most beautiful-looking thing in the world, but it won’t have much meaning beyond prettiness.

Krul has had a fairly diverse set of artists who’ve worked on his scripts, some of whom I’ve panned (Claude St. Aubin), and others upon whom I can’t lavish enough praise and respect (Nicola Scott).  But none of them, even the often faultless Scott, have managed to overcome what I view as Krul’s weaknesses as a writer.  You can paint a leaky roof like the Sistine Chapel, but it’ll still leak—and the damp will damage the painting anyway.

It’s become almost a mean habit of mine to call out Krul’s choice of dialogue, but as it stands, he still can’t produce an issue that isn’t riddled with pointlessly melodramatic lines, like Wonder Woman musing, “Are we defending ourselves from the Atlanteans?  Fighting for our survival?  Or are both sides racing together, side-by-side, toward the abyss?  Blinded by rage?  Doomed.”  As a rule, monologues have a place in fiction, but overblown, unsubtle, cheesy ramblings have the effect of making me ever so slightly nauseated.