Artifacts #8 – Review

By Ron Marz (writer), Whilce Portacio (pencils), Joe Weems (inks), Marco Galli & Mike Odle (ink assists), Sunny Gho (colors), Troy Peteri (letters)

The Story: The second chapter of the Artifacts saga comes to a close with a huge struggle to gain control of the mysterious 13th Artifact and its wayward and unpredictable bearer. Underneath this larger battle, too, several individual rivalries are pushing themselves to the forefront. How will this ultimately affect the fight for control of the power to re (or un) make reality? Only time will tell.

What’s Good: While I’m very much looking forward to what Jeremy Haun will bring to the table for Artifact’s final chapter, I’m going to miss the detailed and epic job Whilce Portacio does, especially on the bigger and more fantastical monsters and set pieces. (In this issue, the throwdown between Glorianna Silver and Michael Finnigan–bearers of the Ember Stone and Glacier Stone respectively–is particularly impressive.)

From a storytelling standpoint, this issue represents the nadir for our team of heroes–the odds are impossible, hope (both literal and figurative) seems remote, and they have just angered the one being in the universe with the power to single-handedly destroy them. Marz handles this very well, imbuing Sara’s team with the perfect combination of tough determination and cynical, graveyard humor.

What’s Not So Good: The only complaint I can really voice about the series at this point is that, when taking the last 3-4 issues as a whole, it does feel like things are being more drawn out than necessary. While this is undoubtedly an excellent and game changing story for the TCU, I get the feeling that 13 issues were decided on more for the cute ‘matching up with the number of Artifacts’ factor than because of actual storytelling necessity. Since this is still easily the best event book to come out in a long, long time though, complaining about having more than necessary seems somehow ungrateful. 😉

Conclusion: This issue shows that Artifacts is still going as strong as ever. I’m very much looking forward to seeing how this story plays out, and to learning more about the nature of that mysterious #13.

Grade: A-

-SoldierHawk

Follow SoldierHawk on Twitter.

Follow WCBR on Twitter and Facebook.

Artifacts #5 – Review

By Ron Marz (writer), Whilce Portacio (pencils), Joe Weems and Marco Galli (inks), Jared Liffreing (ink assist), Sunny Gho and Arif Prianto (colors), Troy Peteri (letters)

The Story: While the good guys continue to try and sort out their various personality issues, Aphrodite takes one giant leap for cyborg kind by infiltrating the HQ of Cyberforce, and leading them in a big 9if hopefully not yet climactic) assault on Sara and her friends.

What’s Good: First and foremost, a fond farewell to Michael Broussard and the absolutely superlative job he did bringing the last four issues of Artifacts to life. I love Ron Marz, and I love this series, but it was Broussard’s art that put it a cut above almost everything else on the stands.

That said, a hearty welcome to Whilce Portacio, who steps into this issue (and the next mini-arc) quite admirably. While it is different (and while I would just as soon have every Top Cow book ever printed drawn by Stjepan Sejic because everything his pencils touch turn to gold), the new look ends up being rather refreshing, and nicely sets this chapter apart from its predecessor. Considering the way this issue ends–with our team of heroes and team of villains face to face for the first time–I think that’s a very good thing indeed.

Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia #1

By Matt Fraction (Writer), Marc Silvestri (Pencils), Michael Broussard, Eric Basaldua, Tyler Kirkham, & Sheldon Mitchell (Pencil Assists), Joe Weems w/ Marco Galli, Eric Basaldua, Rick Basaldua, Jason Gorder, Jay Leisten, Sal Regla, Jon Sibal, and Ryan Winn (Inks), and Frank D’Armata (Colors)

The Story: A riot breaks out as the March for Humanity (led by Simon Trask and his Humanity Now! coalition) reaches San Francisco’s mutant population. The confrontation sparks a wave of violence between mutants and humans that spreads throughout the streets of San Francisco and other nearby cities. With chaos reigning, Norman Osborn sends his Avengers in to restore some order by any means necessary. There is also another plan at work, something far more sinister…

What’s Good and What’s Not So Good: The best thing about the first chapter of Utopia is its strong ending. It’s genuinely surprising and it brings to mind a number of interesting possibilities. What’s disappointing though, is how long it feels like it takes to get the ending that makes the Utopia one-shot worth reading.

While Matt Fraction does a very nice job of ramping up the tension in San Francisco and establishing a sense of scale to the mutant/ human conflict, too much of Utopia #1 feels like fluff. What Fraction establishes in over thirty pages could have easily been taken care of with less than twenty-five. Now, with that said, just because it’s padding, doesn’t mean it’s bad.

Fraction does a lot of great things with the various characters he is allowed to play with. Fluff or not, there’s no denying how well written Utopia is. The scene between Cyclops and Toad is absolutely fantastic, as is the short Hawkeye/ Bullseye appearance. The page showing how others are reacting to the San Francisco mess is also very effective in a “short, but sweet” way.

What bothers me about Fraction’s story is that it makes Cyclops look rather foolish early on. The March for Humanity had apparently been marching hundreds of miles for quite sometime before reaching San Francisco. I find it hard to believe that a character like Cyclops (or any other “X” leader) would not be on top of things regarding how to deal with Trask’s march. Yeah, I know, that complaint is a bit of a nitpick in the larger scheme of things, but after all the character rehab Cyclops has gone through…

By now you’ve probably noticed that I have yet to mention Utopia’s artwork. There’s a reason for that. You know that phrase “Too many cooks in the kitchen?” Yeah… The artwork in Utopia #1 brings that phrase to mind quite often.

Now I’ll leave the “Top Cow” style stuff for you to decide on (expect subtle scenes to look anything but subtle…poses aplenty). What I will discuss, however, is the fact that the first issue of Utopia has visuals that are, when taken as a whole, quite disappointing. For every great looking scene, there is one that serves as a terrible reminder that the art team is made up of fourteen different people. Simply put, Utopia #1 is wildly inconsistent– visually. At least the whole thing has a cohesive look to it though. It really could have been so much worse considering how many people had a hand in creating the artwork.

Conclusion: The Utopia crossover shows a lot of promise, but it takes a while to understand why. If you can deal with the occasionally rough visuals and the sense that things have been stretched out a bit, you’ll find a lot to like about the Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia one-shot.

Grade: C+

-Kyle Posluszny