blogging by Andrew Wickliffe and friends
Barry Kitson on pencils makes for a better looking Harbinger overall, though inkers Lee Garbett and Khari Evans could’ve picked up the slack more when Kitson gets bored. He’s always got a rushed, unfinished feel to his faces in particular. This issue features the renegades trying to recruit more Harbingers. Dysart splits the story between […]
MoreDysart brings Harbinger’s first arc to an extremely strong finish. He had some sublime foreshadowing earlier (it read like long-term foreshadowing, but it turns out to be short) and he doesn’t waste time establishing the characters. Instead, he just lets the scenes play out fast. For example, there’s a returning character who finally gets a […]
MoreEven with the foreshadowing about the Harbinger foundation being nasty, nothing really prepares for this issue. Dysart shows an unexpected mean-streak, setting up a sympathetic new character and then attacking her. He also manages to get some real sympathy for his protagonist, who hallucinates he’s able to apologize to the girl he wronged. This issue […]
MoreNow we discover the X-Men. Sorry, the Harbinger group. Or foundation. It’s all very futuristic–though it reminds of a lot of sci-fi–and the protagonist, Peter doesn’t quite know what to make of it all. I don’t know how much Dysart came up with, how much is from the original Harbinger series or how much is […]
MoreI don’t know if I’d say Evans’s art is better this issue–there’s more action and he can handle the action–but as for the faces… he still seems weak. But I wasn’t paying as much attention, there’s too much else going on. Dysart opens the issue with another flashback, this time to India (with nice Lewis […]
MoreSo the character in the first scene is a guy? Someone needs to sit Khari Evans down and have a walk with him about showing gender through facial characteristics. The second time I went back to the beginning of the issue, I noticed without Joshua Dysart identifies character’s genders maybe two would be immediately clear. […]
MoreThere’s the Swierczynski I was expecting… turning in a completely useless issue. Tiger’s Beautiful Daughter gets the feature. Swierczynski’s so wrapped up in his Amazon warrior women story he neglects to mention a) the name of the Heavenly City and b) how they could possibly have an Immortal Weapon. It’s nonsensical, but also bad. Swierczynski […]
MoreCould this story be more depressing? Aaron does a decent job on Fat Cobra’s backstory—though he doesn’t go enough into defining Fat Cobra’s Heavenly City. He buys his way back into it at one point and buying one’s way back into a Heavenly City seems a little common. Then there’s all the retconning of Fat […]
MoreFraction does another of those untold tales of a previous Iron Fist stories this issue and it works pretty well. He’s got a lot to get in here–he has to establish the Iron Fist (this one uses the power to expand his tactical thinking), set the ground situation (he’s fighting the British in China in […]
MoreFraction and Brubaker take a break here to focus on one of the previous Iron Fists. They present the story like a fable and get really cute with it. I don’t think the cuteness necessarily has to do with the Iron Fist in question being female, but because she’s got a goofy, sweet but stupid […]
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