Way to go out on a bummer… the issue ends with Robinson informing the reader he or she has just read a truncated, rushed ending to the comic (instead of it going to issue fifteen).
There’s clearly something off about the issue–it’s too rushed, with the leaders of the Five Weapons clubs fighting these five psionics who want to take of the school. Luckily Enrique is there to save the day; Robinson hints a little at how he would have done it in the full narrative, not the shortened one, but there’s still enough charm to get it through.
Actually, a regular issue and an incompetent feeling might have been a better way to go, because this issue of Five Weapons loses a lot of the texture. Robinson doesn’t get to do his standard plotting and the comic just feels weird.
Though Joon the Loon has an amazing fight scene.
B-
CREDITS
Tyler’s Revenge, Part Five; writer, artist and letterer, Jimmie Robinson; colorist, Paul Little; editor, Laura Tavishati; publisher, Image Comics.
I've talked before about how Robinson constructs Five Weapons more as a deduction story than anything else. It's like Encyclopedia Brown, I think I said.
I almost feel like I need to go back and read Encyclopedia Brown to see if that series is where Robinson is getting his cliffhanger approach from. If so, I’ll bet Five Weapons reads great in a trade.
I love the way Robinson is able to use exposition–not to mention Enrique’s internal monologue–the draw the reader’s attention to particular facts. In the most extreme examples, it’s the thought process–showing the reader what they missed by not paying enough attention (though, if the reader did pay enough attention, the pleasure of the lesson wouldn’t be there). But he also uses it for the cliffhanger this issue. He agitates the reader quietly, then ends the comic. It’s a neat device.
What a cliffhanger–ugh, Robinson really knows what he’s doing this issue. Except the art is a little rushed. Maybe he’s in a hurry.
Robinson gives the series a really simplistic finish, but doesn’t even finish the series. He’s continuing it–this issue is the first without a sensational hard cliffhanger and instead he goes with a lame soft one.
Robinson gets in a lot more backstory–both for the lead, Tyler, and the principal and the nurse–and only skims over a little in the present action. He’s bringing things to a close, perhaps a little hurriedly, but he’s got some nice scenes to make up for it. Five Weapons is a comic about action where the most interesting scenes are the talking about action. Very odd.
Robinson doubles back quite a bit here–the lead (who he’s still calling Tyler, which might be a mislead, might really be the kid’s name) now has to face off against another of the weapon clubs. Only in the previous issue, Robinson established he’d somehow bested the other clubs… just not in a way worth showing.
Robinson probably gets in two issues worth of content, if you measure by what Marvel and DC put out. He doesn’t just resolve the previous issue’s cliffhanger, he introduces and resolves a plot twist–it’s particularly interesting because it’s so obvious and he can’t possibly expect the reader to buy it… and he doesn’t. It’s just how he’s pacing out the issue.
Jimmie Robinson takes the whole first issue of Five Weapons to even hint at the ground situation. I thought he did it all right away but then he reveals more later on.