Soulfire: New World Order #2 (Aspen – Krul/Herrera/Olea)
I picked this up because I’m sort of fond of Francisco Herrera’s art, but even that wasn’t all that good. This book is a perfect example of what not to do when you’re making a comic. And maybe for folks steeped in the Apsen lore it made more sense, but since the concepts are pretty cliche, I think I got the gist of it.
Like this book, I don’t even know where to start. Action is confusing. The story jumps from place to place without any real indication that it’s jumping from place to place. While the art is distinct and pretty cool, I still had trouble figuring out who was who sometimes. The situations were contrived and cliche. Character motivation that just don’t make sense. Wow, our heros are brought together by fate, weird. There’s a misunderstanding the with law, weird. The bad guy decides to out himself at the temple amid a slew of cops and special forces when there was no need or point. It’s not like he had decided to make a stand and statement, he was just an idiot…That sort of stuff. I can’t exactly put my finger on it, but I can’t tell you what’s wrong with my car either when it’s broke, but I know it doesn’t work.
The design elements were weakas well, I still don’t know if the magic people’s (angels?) flying thingies are wings or wads of flapping cellophane, the scary Dragon Rider police guys very uninteresting and indistinct. I wasn’t expecting alot from the plot, but I definately expecting the design elements to be stronger.
And the colors were pale and washed out and blah.
I don’t have much to recommend in this book. Maybe a weak attempt at a Mega-Event like Marvel and DC have done so…um…successfully. Maybe if you’re a die-hard Aspen fan, you’ll enjoy this, but most likely, like with so many other Mega Event comics you’ll be left scratching your head and wondering why? and why you forked over your $2.99 for the book, and why you’d fork over more later…
Story D
Art C-
Colors C-
