Gears of War #6 – Review

By Joshua Ortega (Writer), Liam Sharp (Artist), and Jonny Rench (Colorist)

Some Thoughts Before The Review: The creative team behind Gears of War has a lot of work to do in issue six if they want me to keep the series on my pull list. To say that last month’s issue disappointed me would be a pretty serious understatement. In fact, I’m fairly certain it earned one of the lowest grades I have ever given out.

The Story: The final chapter of “Hollow” is about Marcus and the gang battling their way out of the Montevado sinkhole. Things do not go smoothly. Especially in Jace’s case…

What’s Good and What’s Not So Good: Liam Sharp and Jonny Rench do a great job of clearly capturing the action, chaos, grit, and violence necessary to make the Montevado sinkhole battle feel like something that carries dramatic weight. And they needed to, because Gears of War #6 is quite forgettable as far as storytelling is concerned. It’s not that the story is poorly executed or written, it’s just that, bottom line, there really isn’t a whole lot of story to tell. What little there is exists merely to stage action scenes and bring some sort of conclusion to the first arc of the series.

I’m at a bit of a loss as to what to say regarding Joshua Ortega’s writing. His plot vehicle, Jace, has a decent amount of depth and a flair for dramatic narration, but it’s that very depth that makes the character feel out of place. Too much time is spent on Jace when everyone knows that it’s really the Marcus Fenix show. While it’s admirable that Ortega opted to expand the cast of the series, it’s questionable whether it was ultimately the right decision when the action-packed comic series feels so shallow. It’s not that I expected something deep, but I did hope that it would expand and add to the videogame mythos a bit more successfully.

Conclusion: While Gears #6 isn’t quite strong enough to stop the series from dropping off my pull list due to the weak storytelling, it’s not really the creative team’s fault. The visuals do the source material justice, the writing is decent enough despite the limits placed on it (considering that the series takes place in between games one and two), and, as a whole, the book proves to be an entertaining piece of sci-fi action. I recommend it to fans of the game, but urge those checking it out to keep expectations realistic.

Grade: C+

-Kyle Posluszny

Gears of War #5 – Review

By Joshua Ortega (Writer), Liam Sharp (Artist), and Jonny Rench (Colors)

Some Thoughts Before The Review: Being a fan of the Xbox 360 series, the Gears of War comics are something of a guilty pleasure for me. The artwork in them effectively captures the gritty violence of the game’s world and action, while the tough-guy dialogue works well enough to keep the books entertaining enough to read. I wish the Gears series had a bit more story and depth, but then again I had a fairly solid idea of what I was getting into when I picked up the first issue.

The Story: Marcus, Jace, Dom, and Barrick find themselves trapped underneath the rubble of the ruined city of Montevado. With the area unstable and crawling with creatures, the separated COGs must find a way out of the dangerous mess. The situation offers up the opportunity for the reader to learn a little more about Jace as well.

What’s Good: To be honest, there isn’t much about Gears #5 that is particularly memorable. The action comes across well and the situation the COGs find themselves in by the end of the issue is appropriately hopeless (and potentially exciting), but beyond that there just isn’t a whole lot worth mentioning. And that’s something of a shame because the creative team puts in some pretty decent work…

What’s Not So Good: The pretty decent work ultimately fails to amount to much. I understand that for the most part, Gears of War is all about mindless action. That said, it wouldn’t hurt to actually advance the storyline once in a while. I mean, I love bloody action as much as the next guy, but it gets tiresome when it seems as though that’s all that is holding the series together. There has to be some driving force moving things along. Unfortunately, I have pretty much stopped caring what that force is at this point. As a result, I just found the penultimate chapter of the first Gears arc to be quite boring.

Conclusion: While I will be sticking around to see how the “Hollow” story concludes thanks to the fairly strong finish of chapter five, I can’t help but be disappointed with things as a whole. The creative team definitely gets the appeal of Gears and successfully translates it to the page, but the whole thing just feels empty without a compelling story. Maybe things will turn around next month, but I will be sure to keep my expectations in check.

Grade:  C-

-Kyle Posluszny