Soule frames the issue around a speech from the President, revealing the existence of the aliens. He’s also got some scenes in space–the majority of those scenes are useless by the end of the issue–and some earthbound political intrigue.

He also has the United States and Germany going back to war and nothing happens from it. It’s an exceptionally interesting idea, one with a lot of promise, but Soule just uses Germany as this little group of villains. It’s a strange misstep, given how smart the rest of Soule’s political intrigue usually goes.

And the stuff in space isn’t great. The issue has some of Alburquerque’s best art at the beginning during a boxing match, but then the encounter with the aliens is poorly illustrated. There’s no depth or perspective to the art.

As for the aliens… Hopefully Soule has something more going than what he does here.

Soule frames the issue around a speech from the President, revealing the existence of the aliens. He’s also got some scenes in space–the majority of those scenes are useless by the end of the issue–and some earthbound political intrigue.

He also has the United States and Germany going back to war and nothing happens from it. It’s an exceptionally interesting idea, one with a lot of promise, but Soule just uses Germany as this little group of villains. It’s a strange misstep, given how smart the rest of Soule’s political intrigue usually goes.

And the stuff in space isn’t great. The issue has some of Alburquerque’s best art at the beginning during a boxing match, but then the encounter with the aliens is poorly illustrated. There’s no depth or perspective to the art.

As for the aliens… Hopefully Soule has something more going than what he does here.

B 

CREDITS

Writer, Charles Soule; penciller, Alberto Jiménez Alburquerque; colorist, Dan Jackson; letterer, Crank!; editor, Robin Herrera; publisher, Oni Press.

Soule does an agitating bridging issue–sort of a ramping up of certain things. He resolves a storyline–the two soldiers in Afghanistan–while teasing things to come. There’s a bit with the First Lady, less with the President, a little bit with Germany (in his only conceptual misstep, Soule writes the German chancellor as a power hungry psychopath, just like their most famous chancellor). The outer space stuff is incidental… if it weren’t for the text recap, I might have forgotten about the baby being in crisis.

But as an agitating issue, Soule’s focus is to keep the reader interested while delaying giving them anything. The First Lady threatens her foe… not particularly engaging. The President just looks dumbfounded. The German chancellor comes off as dumb. Only the soldier scenes resonate and then they’re over done.

Alburquerque is rather lazy with composition this issue. His pacing is all wrong.

Soule does an agitating bridging issue–sort of a ramping up of certain things. He resolves a storyline–the two soldiers in Afghanistan–while teasing things to come. There’s a bit with the First Lady, less with the President, a little bit with Germany (in his only conceptual misstep, Soule writes the German chancellor as a power hungry psychopath, just like their most famous chancellor). The outer space stuff is incidental… if it weren’t for the text recap, I might have forgotten about the baby being in crisis.

But as an agitating issue, Soule’s focus is to keep the reader interested while delaying giving them anything. The First Lady threatens her foe… not particularly engaging. The President just looks dumbfounded. The German chancellor comes off as dumb. Only the soldier scenes resonate and then they’re over done.

Alburquerque is rather lazy with composition this issue. His pacing is all wrong.

B 

CREDITS

Writer, Charles Soule; penciller, Alberto Jiménez Alburquerque; colorist, Dan Jackson; letterer, Crank!; editor, Robin Herrera; publisher, Oni Press.

Soule goes a little nuts with his application of Murphy’s law this issue. There’s a great scene where the President’s former chief of staff–recovering, somewhat, from his attack–lays out the President’s options and there aren’t many (or any). Things are going from bad to worse for the First Lady too, not to mention the soldiers in Afghanistan and then the astronauts.

It’s a great issue in a lot of ways, with Soule letting the reader know, decisively, bad things are going to happen. It’s sometimes hard to remember how serious the comic would be with a different artist; Alburquerque adds a certain cartoonish quality overall (and, again, way too much with those goofy soldier costumes) so there’s a bit of a disconnect.

As for where the comic can go… Soule’s gimmick (Obama, Bush, aliens) is over. He’s into his own territory now and he’s doing quite well there.

B+ 

CREDITS

Writer, Charles Soule; penciller, Alberto Jiménez Alburquerque; colorist, Dan Jackson; letterer, Crank!; editor, Robin Herrera; publisher, Oni Press.

It's an okay issue. It's not a great one, probably not even a good one. Soule coasts on a lot of good will and a lot of promise of what's to come–misunderstandings with the aliens, possible American-backed terrorism, the First Lady stepping out for a vote–and he doesn't actually do much here.

In addition to the promise, there's also a lot of action art from Alburquerque–and more of his lame futuristic army armor. There's energy to the art, but very little control and the sequences become visually boring rather quickly. Alburquerque can't do the big reveals in Soule's script either. He's got two, one physically small, one physically large, and both of them completely bomb.

Letter 44 is about big events and small events… Soule tries too hard to big events this issue. Telling it small doesn't do any good. It's a way too manipulative issue as it turns out.

B- 

CREDITS

Writer, Charles Soule; penciller, Alberto Jiménez Alburquerque; colorist, Dan Jackson; letterer, Crank!; editor, Robin Herrera; publisher, Oni Press.