Wildfire gets across the finish line with a lot of problems. Hawkins still manages to sell the issue, but he’s got some questionable moments throughout. Besides supporting cast members ending up dead, things go pretty well for the protagonists this issue and everything sort of works out. There’s even a time lapse towards the end of the issue to get out of character development.
And that omission is something of a blessing in disguise because Sejic’s art looks like bad cels from a cheap CG kids movie. Like a direct-to-video Disney knockoff. Something about the way she draws the characters this issue, their expressions… it’s like 101 Dalmatians or something.
There’s just enough of Hawkins’s attention to detail to get the story done. He reminds of better moments, better realizations. The series probably needed another issue to really get the ending done well.
But it’s still somewhat successful.
B
CREDITS
Writer, Matt Hawkins; artist, Linda Sejic; letterer, Troy Peteri; editor, Betsy Gonia; publisher, Top Cow Productions.
There’s some great stuff in the issue, specifically where Hawkins describes how space battle works between ships. He does some quick, but detailed exposition, then carefully maneuvers the dialogue to reinforce what the reader already has passing familiarity with. It works out very well.
Sejic’s art is a lot better for about half the issue. Instead of doing the CG shading on characters faces, she just colors them. All of a sudden Wildfire looks like animation cels, but it works. Sejic apparently does give her characters expressions, but then the complicated coloring ruins them.
Hawkins is one cruel writer. Until now, he’s always done an excellent job making Tales of Honor an engaging read, but this issue he works out comic book action tension better than maybe anyone ever has before. He makes the comic a page turner, using long expository paragraphs to pace the reader’s attention.
The second issue of Wildfire ties back to the beginning of the first issue–Los Angeles aflame. This issue explains more about how it happens, with Hawkins even taking the time to cut to the fire starting. He doesn’t really need to make the cut–he spends the rest of the issue establishing the characters, including newscasters who could cover it.
Wildfire seems to a science thriller. It’s hard to say so far–writer Matt Hawkins gives the reader a glimpse of the titular disaster and then backtracks a few days, presumably to show now the event came to pass.
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.
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.