The Stand: American Nightmares #5 – Review

By Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Writer), Mike Perkins (Art), and Laura Martin (Colors)

Some Thoughts Before The Review: The Stand’s pace is really starting to get to me as a comic fan. While the writing and artwork is quite fantastic all around, it’s difficult to be completely satisfied with tiny chunks of a massive story. Maybe I’ll trade wait Soul Survivors, the next chapter of The Stand comic series.

The Story: Nick Andros visits two very different places in his dreams as he hopes to make it through the night. Larry Underwood awakes and makes a grisly discovery. Stu Redman meets up with Harold and Frannie, warning them that their destination is not a place they want to be.

What’s Good and What’s Not So Good: The worst thing I can say about the final issue of The Stand: American Nightmares? That it doesn’t feel at all like a conclusion to anything. Nothing terribly exciting happens, there’s no killer cliffhanger, and everything just sort of inches forward in a way that lays the groundwork for the next mini-series. Does that mean it’s a bad comic though? Not at all.

From the revealing dialogue to the almost folksy narration, The Stand: American Nightmares #5 is an effective read. As expected, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s scripting gives every character a realistic voice and a satisfying level of emotion. In addition, the slow storytelling style almost forces you to invest in the characters so that the lingering sense of dread feels all the more unsettling.

As for the artwork, it’s as good as I’ve come to expect from the team of Mike Perkins and Laura Martin. From horrific details to subtle emotion, Perkins and Martin truly bring Stephen King’s story to life. I honestly have no complaints.

Conclusion: The last part of American Nightmares is about as technically sound as a comic can get. That said, it’s a bit boring and lacks the sense of urgency that should leave readers dying for more.

Grade: C+

-Kyle Posluszny

The Stand: American Nightmares #2 – Review

By Stephen King (Creator), Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Script), Mike Perkins (Art), and Laura Martin (Colors)

The Story: The tension continues to mount as American Nightmares rolls on. A starving convict, a pyromaniac named The Trashcan Man, and Randall Flagg take up a majority of the issue. While the other surviving characters think of possible destinations that could provide safety.

What’s Good: The creative team behind the Marvel adaptation of The Stand impresses on nearly every level. The script by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is impressively tight, especially considering how dense Stephen King’s writing can be. That said, it also manages to be necessarily descriptive and entertainingly wordy in the appropriate places. As for the visuals, Mike Perkins and Laura Martin absolutely nail the brutal tone of the story with their disturbingly detailed work. The art team makes you truly fear Captain Tripps, Randall Flagg, those that run wild, and how distressingly bleak the entire situation has become.

What’s Not So Good: For as much as I’m enjoying the series, the pace is starting to wear on me a bit. While it worked extremely well in Captain Tripps by highlighting the ominous spread of a virus, American Nightmares suffers because of it since so much still needs to be introduced or explained. In other words, Nightmares (so far) lacks the sense of direction that made Tripps so satisfying.

Conclusion: While The Stand: American Nightmares #2 is quite impressive on a technical level, it proves to be a rather unsatisfying chapter in a much larger work.

Grade: B-

-Kyle Posluszny