The issue takes a while. Torres paces it well and he pads it out a little. There’s a lot of confusing narration from the bad guy to muddle through. But it’s worth it.

Even with the weak plotting, undercooked characters and Lorenzana’s underwhelming artwork, On Earth makes it.

Why?

Because Torres has got a great protagonist with Nancy–who doesn’t even have a character arc, she’s just trying to stay alive; he writes her well enough to make the series worthwhile.

Torres also rewards the reader with the finish, though not entirely. Of the three epilogues, only one’s any good but it’s so good, it makes up for the rest. One’s obligatory, another’s philosophically interesting but narratively unrewarding.

But the good one? It’s a great one. And it gets one immediately anticipating more comics from Torres.

Hopefully next time with a decent artist. Lorenzana did On Earth no good.

CREDITS

Writer, El Torres; artist, Enrique Lopez Lorenzana; colorist, Fran Gamboa; letterer, Malaka Studio; editor, C. Edward Sellner; publisher, Image Comics.

I didn’t get it last issue, but some of the death row inmates are stand-ins. I noticed Danny Trejo and Quentin Tarantino. Sadly, I noticed them on some of the multiple full page spreads. There are four or five of them in the issue, which isn’t good. Lorenzana doesn’t compose those shots well. He can’t handle the anarchy.

Sadly, Torres loses most of the comic’s personality too. There’s no central character this issue; Torres needs to plot against one or another, so he roams over the cast. Without Nancy to drive the issue, Torres gets lost.

It’s too bad the issue falls apart, since Torres did have some good scenes. He just doesn’t have a plot to go along with them.

Torres doesn’t make the characters worth carrying about, except maybe Lucifer and Nancy. But it’s hard to care about them given the plot’s silliness.

Still, could be worse.

CREDITS

Writer, El Torres; artist, Enrique Lopez Lorenzana; colorist, Fran Gamboa; letterer, Malaka Studio; editor, Richard Boom; publisher, Image Comics.

I’m not sure Nancy in Hell could exist without Garth Ennis. Torres isn’t ripping him off precisely, just his approach (and attitude) to afterlife stuff.

It’s just derivative and it’s a fine derivation. Torres bypasses most of the previous issue’s problems–the annoying cop ceases to be annoying with Nancy around to drive the story. She’s a backseat driver at times (once literally), but she’s always present.

On Earth is an apocalypse story (in a mall, no less) and Torres nicely halves the issue between action and fallout. The second half is Nancy finding out she’s in the future and Lucifer trying to redeem death row inmates.

Where the comic hits the bumps is the art. Lorenzana’s art is too slick for the human scenes. He does far better making the gross stuff not seem so scary and the giant Hell monsters look good too.

It’s entertaining and mostly competent.

CREDITS

Writer, El Torres; artist, Enrique Lopez Lorenzana; colorist, Fran Gamboa; letterer, Malaka Studio; editors, C. Edward Sellner and Matt Litts; publisher, Image Comics.

For some reason, El Torres thinks the reader needs two recaps of the previous series, so Nancy in Hell On Earth takes a while to get started.

There’s a little with the bad guy getting the job of lording over Earth’s destruction, but he also recaps the end of the last series. It’d be more effective without. Same goes for the reintroduction of Nancy and Lucifer. Torres does have a funny twist, but it comes after he wastes a couple pages on ground situation.

One of those text recaps on the credits page would have been a lot better.

With the Nancy and Lucifer scenes, Torres does just fine. Then he introduces some cop helping people and quoting the Bible. Those scenes don’t work out.

Enrique Lopez Lorenzana’s art is okay most of the time, but he’s weak when it comes to drawing people. It makes for some bad panels.

C 

CREDITS

Writer, El Torres; artist, Enrique Lopez Lorenzana; colorist, Fran Gamboa; letterer, Malaka Studio; editor, C. Edward Sellner; publisher, Image Comics.