Hawkins does such a good job with the pacing–the way he’s able to split the story off into scenes with auxiliary characters and have his protagonist narrate from her side makes Tales of Honor something special. Only this time Hawkins doesn’t have a natural stopping point; he goes for a hard cliffhanger but it’s got to do with a mission, not the commander or the speaking cast.
It cuts down on the effectiveness. Also problematic is that Jeong art. It’s so painfully digital and so uninventive, it needs Hawkins’s plotting and narration (presumably from the source novel) to keep things moving. But the finale has the aliens and Jeong is terrible at the living things.
Still, the mid-section plot development and the character development are just phenomenal and keep Honor compelling on multiple levels. Hawkins just needs to stop leaving his main cast off page for the cliffhangers.
B-
CREDITS
On Basilisk Station, Part Three; writer, Matt Hawkins; artists, Sang-Il Jeong and Linda Sejic; letterer, Troy Peteri; editor, Besty Gonia; publisher, Top Cow Productions.
Something about Hawkins's presentation of facts–the way he uses his protagonist to narrate her past from her present, it makes Tales of Honor very palatable. There are a lot of absurd details, like how the protagonist has the psychic cat who she keeps with her. And takes with her on diplomatic meetings.
I have one quibble with Tales of Honor is how Jung-Geun Yoon draws the wildlife. Yoon’s sequential art is very stylized, digital painting, which works great for space battles and not too bad for the people. The conversations are mostly in medium shots so no too static faces delivering dialogue. But the protagonist has a pet cat (it’s not just a pet, it’s a soul-bonded thing but who cares) and Yoon can’t draw that cat. It looks like an Egyptian statue.