I’m not sure if I’d say Black Market has a charm to it. Writer Frank J. Barbiere does have a big twist at the end, but he’s telling the story in two time periods a few months apart. Having a good twist and being able to do something with it for the rest of the series are two different things.
Here, he has his main character getting into the illegal superhero DNA trade; he shows the character before and after this life of crime. If it weren’t for Victor Santos’s art, it wouldn’t work at all. Santos is the one who makes the protagonist–Ray–sympathetic. Barbiere just gives him a sob story and a manipulative older brother. It’s Santos who makes the guy’s world seem real.
Because of the two timelines, the pacing is awkward; Barbiere doesn’t balance things well. But that end twist and Santos make it worth a look.
B-
CREDITS
Writer, Frank J. Barbiere; artist, Victor Santos; colorist, Adam Metcalfe; letterer, Ed Dukeshire; editors, Chris Rosa and Eric Harburn; publisher, Boom! Studios.
A couple quick observations. The first I should have made a long time ago–I wonder if having templar in the title and it being the name of famous knights affects people’s initial impression of Mice Templar. I see it as being a dismissive thing and, after reading Glass’s amazing success here… no one should be dismissing this comic.
Glass has a lot to deliver with the resolution to this series and he knows it. This issue is just he and Santos upping the ante over and over. They already have a difficult setup and they try for more.
It’s hard to know where to start with this one because Glass comes up with a monster cliffhanger. Big twist and some interesting ramifications for what Glass has already revealed, not to mention whatever his explanation will be. It sort of overshadows everything else.
Glass continues the series on its way, with some subtle observations from Karic about his lot in life. Having Karic the more mature, thoughtful one–especially as he finds himself amongst old Templars–is still a bit of a surprise. It’s a fine transition, it just changes the series more than I was expecting. With it, Mice Templar loses a number of its similarities to other works.
It’s a strange issue. There’s this romantic interlude between Karic and a girl mouse; they go swimming together. Glass writes the heck of the scene, showing Karic as a youth while simultaneously establishing his maturity. Not to mention Santos gets to draw a fight scene between the two mice and attacking crayfish. It’s an awesome sequence.
Just before the issue ended, I realized Glass had finally delivered what I’ve been waiting for on Destiny–the full forward motion. He’s done with the exposition–even his third person narration is sparse; it immediately informs the reader of the setting. The scenes and characters do the rest.
There’s some awesome art from Santos this issue. He gets to do not just the regular action, but also the flashbacks detailing the origins of the world. Glass has been doing a lot with the supernatural angle of the series and, for the first time, it feels like Mice Templar might not even take place on Earth. It’s way too soon to tell–and it might not even matter; this issue has a myth about two suns and one going out.
There’s a lot of material this issue. Plot developments, character developments, but Glass still tries to deliver a somewhat action-packed narrative. The opening–the A plot–has the heroes held captive by moles; there’s humor from Cassius who mocks the moles, a fair amount of suspense (the moles are apparently under siege) and then some payoff on that suspense.
As this issue begins, with some flashbacks to the big battle ending the Templar, Glass also establishes the relationship between Cassuis and Karic. It’s a dysfunctional mentor and student relationship. Karic thinks Cassius hates him and Cassius hates Karic.