Brisson wraps up the arc wonderfully. Everything comes to a collision, there's lots and lots of action, lots and lots of violence. So much violence and action, in fact, it becomes very hard to follow the art. Couceiro just has too many bikers to draw and Michael Spicer's colors are so dark, it's difficult to keep them apart.
So, even though Couceiro's art is strong as usual, it's the reason the issue isn't a total success. Too many pages have to ride on momentum to get through the visual confusion. Brisson has reminders throughout scenes and so on–and the cuts back and forth between sets of characters is good–but there are just too many players in motion. Eventually, people start getting lost.
But it all does wrap up and it's impressive how Brisson makes it happen. He intricately plots these arcs and the pay-off makes it all worthwhile.
Great comics.
CREDITS
Writer, Ed Brisson; artist, Damian Couceiro; colorist, Michael Spicer; letterer, Ed Dukeshire; editor, Dafna Pleban; publisher, Boom! Studios.
So much talking. And Couceiro does a great job with all that talking, but the issue consists of four or five conversations and one suggestive last page. I can't remember but it might be the first time Brisson's done a bridging issue on Sons of Anarchy. Maybe not, but certainly never so deliberate as this one.
Brisson sure does have a complicated situation setup. Not bad complicated, good complicated. The regular Sons members are still supporting cast and maybe even moreso with Brisson introducing the father of a guy who died in a meth lab. Either this new character is going to be a long-term player in the arc or short-term but the way Brisson is weaving the plot strands is phenomenal.
I thought this issue might just be okay–good, but not startling. Then Brisson does a big double ante finish with a surprise or two. He foreshadows them both, but discreetly enough they aren’t predictable. He’s got a loose focus on the cast this issue–the regular Anarchy club members are practically guest stars–and it lets him get away with a lot.
I'm trying to come up with a phrase to describe Sons of Anarchy–amoral entertainment, the amorality of entertainment. The problem with those two phrases are they're something difference, even if the vocabulary is similar.
Here’s the problem with Sons of Anarchy, at least how Brisson is pacing it. It’s a licensed comic with a not comic shop traditional audience so Brisson is pacing it for a collection. It makes this issue really frustrating because of the cliffhanger. Brisson does well building up his story for the unfamiliar reader, so he or she is invested in the plot, not the characters.
There’s a lot of lovely art this issue. It’s a hard story–most of the leads are in jail, the women are being threatened on the outside, but Damian Couceiro–with the able help of colorist Michael Spicer–manages to embrace the hardness while still being stylishly appealing. About the only time the art doesn’t work is when there’s too much artificial pacing to it, like for the cliffhanger.
Ed Brisson takes over Sons of Anarchy with a good pulpy story about a guy investigating the death of a friend's junkie son. I assume the guy and the friend are on the show, but since I haven't seen the show, it's just a guy and his friend.
This issue isn’t just all action, it’s basically all action down a short stretch of highway. There are some flashbacks and interludes, but really, it’s just three action sequences. First, the club gets ambushed–that one might be a cliffhanger resolution–then the girl and her protector go on down the highway a bit and the other guys in the club continue the shoot out. Then the girl and her protector get into a fight with the angry motorcycle guy.
It’s an all action issue. I’m not sure there’s time for anything else in this series besides action. At best a page or two, here and there, with the characters preparing for their eventual participation in the action. It’s good and pulpy.