The Stop Button

I like how Moench continues his stories after a break. Sure, it might have been to give Sutton time to finish or Ploog time to work on his storyline, but Moench uses the breaks well. The stories pick up a nice interval later.

Here, for instance, the story of the huge city-ships continues. Sutton doesn’t get to go crazy on those, but he does have a living submersible to illustrate. He does a great job.

It’s a good story. Moench gets a little too didactic, but the pacing is fantastic.

On the adaptation, Moench turns a bunch of talking head scenes into something very tense. It probably helps he’s adapting, so the dialogue beats are already done. He and Rival collaborate impressively to bring that talkiness to the medium.

Rival is still doing caricatures, but this time it’s villainous ones. There’s not a single smile, much less a laugh.

CREDITS

Dreamer In Emerald Silence; writer, Doug Moench; artist, Tom Sutton. Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Part Four: In the Cradle of a Father’s Sins; writer, Moench; artist, Rico Rival. Editor, Archie Goodwin; publisher, Marvel Comics.