This was another packed week of releases from Marvel, DC Comics, Image Comics, and BOOM! Studios. It was certainly a strong way to start a new month with so many comic books to choose to pick up today. To give proper attention to the comic book releases of this week I put together quick reviews for this week’s books. This week I’m spotlighting Fence: Redemption #2, Knight Terrors: Batman #1, Torent #5, and X-Men #24.
These reviews are in addition to the standalone review for Daredevil #13, Knight Terrors: First Blood, No/One #4, and Swan Songs #1 that you can also check out
FENCE: REDEMPTION #2
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer: C.S. Pacat
Artist: Johanna the Mad
Colorist: Joana Lafuente
Letterer: Jim Campbell
REVIEW
Fence: Redemption #2 slows things down from the first issue that established wat the main conflict of the series will be. This second issue is contained to devote time to each character interaction that you do feel like not much time passes. Everything feels like it is happening within a five-minute span. It’s feeling how much time passes that makes this second issue not as tight as the first.
While the story doesn’t progress much what C.S. Pacat and Johanna the Mad excelled at in this second issue was capturing each character voice of the cast. This isn’t a small cast, especially now that you add in the antagonist group for this series. Even with having juggle as many characters as they do you never feel like one character gets lost in the shuffle. Every character gets time on screen to display their personality, relationships, or role in this story. Not having read the previous series this is certainly appreciated as how a character’s background impacts their way of speaking is seen clearly.
Though the story does fall on the typical jerk antagonist set-up that we see in every slice-of-life type story. The dialogue for the teen established as an antagonist is very predictable. That predictability leads to a lot less excitement over seeing the actual fencing, which we only get in the background. Future issues should do a better job mixing in the sport of fencing in progressing both the characters and story forward. Even if its during training that would help the predictable story beats not feel as though everyone is standing still.
On the artwork side of things, Johanna the Mad artwork is what lifts the problems the dialogue runs into. Mad is able to tell full stories with the artwork alone. A big example of that is one of the splash pages that is framed to explain two characters’ history together. Its done in a way that you get their history while keeping the story moving with the context it is providing to what occurred in the previous pages.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Fence: Redemption #2 slowed down the momentum to focus on specific character pairings. This approach does give more insight in what roles certain characters will serve. That said, there is a lot of predictability with how the antagonists of the story had. With a lack of action that predictability led to this issue feeling like this was a filler episode of an anime.
Story Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 6.5 Night Girls out 10
KNIGHT TERRORS: BATMAN #1
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artist: Guillem March and David Lafuente
Colorist: Tomeu Morey and Rex Lokus
Letterer: Troy Peteri
REVIEW
Knight Terrors: Batman #1 shows the double edge sword that DC Comics two-month event is for them. We have a pause in all the current storylines so all the heroes and villains can deal with being placed in a nightmare world. That does lead to the potential for a deep dive into a character’s psyche, but it also can’t escape the momentum being lost right now with Dawn Of DC.
With Knight Terrors: Batman #1 we get a main story focusing on Bruce Wayne and a back-up featuring Damian Wayne. Credit to Joshua Williamson for utilizing the set-up of Deadman taking over Batman’s body at the end of Knight Terrors: First Blood as part of the narrative. It made it so that this doesn’t just become yet another sad, nightmarish look at Bruce Wayne reliving the trauma of his parents and Alfred Pennyworth’s murders. Creating this sense of awareness does give Knight Terrors: Batman more importance to the main series.
That said, Williamson does run into the problem that much of this story is rushed. There is no new insight given since Bruce reliving the time his parents died and its very much presented that way with how quickly we run through things. That rushed is more prominent in the Damian Wayne back-up story. There is only so much time Williamson gave himself to develop Damian’s part in upcoming issues of Knight Terrors.
Guillem March was at the top of his game with the main story in Knight Terrors: Batman #1. March does a much better job at getting across the horror aspect of the Knight Terrors story. You are never lost in what is going on even when panels get filled with dark visuals.
The same can’t be said for David Lafuente’s artwork in the Damian Wayne back-up story. Lafuente has deliver much better anime-esque artwork in the past. The artwork just isn’t up to the standard held for Lafuente’s artwork history.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Knight Terrors: Batman #1 does a much better job at getting over the concept of DC Comics latest big event than the First Blood prelude chapter did. While Joshua Williamson can’t avoid the core problems with Knight Terrors, creating a self-awareness angle for Bruce Wayne was a smart call. This added immediate importance to Bruce’s narrative alongside Deadman for Knight Terrors.
Story Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
TORRENT #5
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer: Marc Guggenheim
Artist: Justin Greenwood
Colorist: Rico Renzi
Letterer: Keith Wood
REVIEW
Torrent is a series that had a lot of momentum. Highlighting how Michelle Metcalf wasn’t just a normal superhero and that she had an Avengers and Justice League member status quo has elevated her narrative. For all that build up the final payoff we get in Torrent #5 is both what you expect but disappointed in how rushed it is.
Especially coming off Torrent #4, where Michelle as Crackerjack faced off against her former superhero team, Praetorians, there was much more expected than what we got in Torrent #5. There is a feeling that March Guggenheim and Justin Greenwood just ran out of time. The consequences of the fight in the previous issue aren’t there. We just get a time jump that is done to avoid dealing with that fallout. In avoiding that fallout Torrent #5 fails in delivering a satisfying conclusion for what all her actions meant for Michelle as Crackerjack.
Not helping things was the resolution with the villain that caused Michelle’s life to spiral. There was only one-way things could’ve ended, either Michelle or the villain responsible death. How it was handled was predictable. Though it is the insertion of Slipstream, Michelle’s former sidekick, that the story falls apart beyond its predictability. The dialogue comes across as incredibly forced to set-up an ending that feels incredibly forced.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Torrent #5 is a massive disappointment. The fallout from the events from the previous issue are unfortunately not addressed. Rather we get a focus on the predictable resolution of the story. It all leaves you with a feeling that March Guggenheim and Justin Greenwood simply ran out of time to tell this story. That leads to a conclusion that ends up feeling rushed rather than a proper payoff to everything Michelle Metcalf was put through and did over the course of Torrent.
Story Rating: 2 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 4 Night Girls out of 10
X-MEN #24
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Joshua Cassara
Colorist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
REVIEW
X-Men #24 is an encapsulation of this period for the X-Men as a team. The team itself is secondary to everything else going on with the drama around Krakoa. Here we see another great example of that direction as there are three different story arcs happening while the X-Men handle another villain attack.
In terms of presenting the X-Men as a superhero team Gerry Duggan has done well with both rosters he has created. X-Men #24 shows how even in what seems like a short time, the team has built a chemistry that makes them know how to handle the latest villain attack. Joshua Cassara certainly shows how his artwork excels at fight choreography.
But this latest battle the X-Men are involved in is arguably the fifth most important thing going on. In separate scenes we see new develops with Orchis, Rogue confronting Destiny over her vague way of talking about her visions, Scott Summers and Jean Grey relationship status quo, and Magik visiting Sunfire. All of these storylines show how important setting up the upcoming Hellfire Gala is.
Both the developments with Orchis dealing with a young Cable and Rogue’s confrontation with Destiny show hints at how bad things will get at the Hellfire Gala. Its clear that this isn’t a Hellfire Gala where we will see the hope for the future that Krakoa has built is going to be apparent. It is all to set up what will be the Fall Of X direction.
Then there is the continued developments between Cyclops and Jean as the fallout from the battle against the Brood has had a major impact on their relationship. Credit to Duggan for not immediately making the differences in how to handle the Brood crisis didn’t break them up. What it did do was bring up to the surface core differences in how Scott and Jean view what the future of Krakoa is and the relationship between humans and mutants. It’s something that you never thought about but the way they each present their side makes sense to who Scott and Jean are. This creates a lot of intrigue into what roles Scott and Jean will possibly serve in the Fall Of X storyline and beyond.
FINAL THOUGHTS
X-Men #24 does a great job at setting the stage for what we can expect for the upcoming Hellfire Gala. While the X-Men takes a backseat to all these Hellfire Gala-related storylines we do get to see the chemistry the team have built in the brief time they have had together. The superhero action balances out all of dramatic story beats we get throughout X-Men #24. The bigger picture developments help elevate the interest in the events that will be going down in the Hellfire Gala and Fall of X events.
Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7.5 Night Girls out of 10