WEEKLY COGWHEELS #3

Third installation of WEEKLY COGWHEELS, where we are working on improving the format of the column. Both in terms of appearance (new headlines design) and in terms of writing. As I had written before, WEEKLY COGWHEELS is a compilation of mini-reviews, and that’s why they obviously should be small. Which is why Victor and me set word limit for each review - to write more reviews! Aaand we had written less.

Today we are recommending Southern Bastards, not recommending Original Sin, and comparing new “Moon Knight” run with a previous. 

Writer: Jason Aaron

Artist: Jason Latour

Colours: Jason Latour

“Southern Bastards” reached a conclusion of its first arc and it is the right time to look into this astounding book. It follows the struggle between grumpy Earl Tubb and his corrupted hometown, where he returned after long 40 years. Earl is left alone against everyone - either corrupted or intimated citizens. For four issues Earl was questioning his own choice to stay, since the problems of the town did not concern him for a long time. But Tubb is an honourable man and his sense of justice overruled the sense of self-preservation.

Well, the finale of #4 turned out to be quite a shock. In comics, it is hard to keep plot twists in secret; for example, Aaron’s other book, “Original Sin” was spoiled three months before its last issue. Fortunately, “Southern Bastards” is a creator-owned book, and it keeps its aces up its sleeve, and when the time comes, readers are left surprised and hooked on the book. This comics is a down-to-earth criminal drama and #4 reminds everyone about that. South is a dangerous place and no one gets off easily.

Now that the status-quo of the series is changed, we should look forward for the development of a new storyline. I have no doubt, that it would be as catchy as previous arc. 

Writer: Brian Wood

Artist: Greg Smallwood

Colours: Jordie Bellaire

Brian Wood and Greg Smallwood replaced critically acclaimed creative team of Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey. The comparison of both was inevitable, and I guess, Wood and Smallwood knew that and feared to lose to previous authors. So they decided to leave the tone of a book similar and imitate both Ellis’s writing manner and Shalvey’s manner of painting. With Jordie Bellaire staying on colours, the result keeps up with previous arc of “Moon Knight”.

The main difference between Wood’s and Ellis’s writing, is that Brian seems to build up a long-lasting plotline from his first issue, while Warren just made a row of loosely related one-shots. The starting point looks just fine; it has a similar feel with #2 - assassins, revenge, and big bosses at danger. All those cool abrupt lines, that Moon Knight says, feel like Ellis is still writing. Also Brian made it clear, that Spector’s physiatrist is a living person, and not Moon Knight’s figment of imagination. Maybe it contradicts with what Ellis was writing? By the way, the EMP in an issue was supposed to turn Knight’s glider, too, wasn’t it?

Greg Smallwood is a proper replacement for Declan Shalvey. Though he tries to match Shalvey, using wide panels, Smallwood’s panel structure is visibly different. There are many tilted and overlapping panels, and Greg does not hesitate to use panels of strange forms (Shalvey’s work mostly consisted of rectangular panels). Smallwood uses more “charcoal” brushes, whereas Shalvey’s strokes were more frank.

In the end, it seems like Wood and Smallwood will be a good replacement for the previous team, and the interest in the book would not be lost.

Writer: Jason Aaron

Artist: Mike Deodato Jr.

Colours: Frank Martin

First issues of “Original Sin” showed great potential whether the final ones seem to be the most disappointing issues of this year. Mike Deodato's art is lazy though his style fits the tone of the comic book. Jason Aaron's fun dialogues were left behind somewhere around issues one and two, and due to too many cliffhangers, the plot seems to be lost too: you can read only the last pages of each issue and you won't lose anything 'cause the space between cliffhangers is filled with nothing. So we have the book full of nothing and Deodato's art.

So why did they write this event in the first place? Yes, everyone understands that this way Marvel are boosting their sales but usually there's some backstory behind the event. And “Original Sin” lacks that. Was there any reason to kill off Uatu like when there was reason for DC to kill Robin? Were there any hints at Nick Fury's secret job as the man on the wall? Were there any occasions to think that the spider that bit Peter Parker had also bitten someone else? There's only one answer to all that questions and it is a NO.  The whole idea of the man on the wall may be not that bad after all, but they didn't give us an explanation to what Nick Fury exactly had been doing or how did choose his successor. They said Nick was watching the candidates and chose them because of some characteristic that was needed to do his job. But what characteristics he was talking about, or why putting them on false trails? No one bothered to explain.

Of course we can assume that the event was written in order to introduce a female Thor, and that even might be true, but then why create and then change the status-quo of other characters? In the end it turns out that the book can't handle its own tasks.

This is not the first time when a bad comic book had the potential to be good. And for sure it's not the last time. We can only hope now that “Axis” would be a good read.