![]() Comics ain’t movies, and not having that distinction would hurt or hinder this book’s ability to jab at our heartstrings.Īnd that’s really a core strength of this story so far - those big moments of intense family drama and bigger fights, something which Santos’ work is hugely responsible for facilitating with ample life and color. It’s less about, say, the dialogue (which still feels very movie-esque) and just the movement from scene to scene, and that helps a lot in keeping things fluid and focused on tentpoles. It’s a slightly cutesy, borderline cheesy tale - but then that’s sort of the point, as boxing is really just the lens for a more poignant tale of family trying to sort out its future.Īt the same time, though, Morgan and Jamison are there to carefully and deliberately temper some of the more cinematic tendencies, and that includes not only that uber dramatic sheen but also round out the story in a way that it moves and sticks like a proper comic. You can see Jordan’s Hollywood fingerprints all across this book, guiding the story of young Amara Creed trying in proving her worth to her father and making it on her own terms despite said mega-lineage. ![]() That dichotomous team approach is perhaps why issue #1 works really well. Luckily, we’ve got a crack creative team - writers LaToya Morgan ( Dark Blood) and Jai Jamison ( Superman & Lois) and artist Wilton Santos ( Break Out) - to keep this grounded in the very specific waters of comics-dom. ![]() Not of anything that really matters, but certainly when it comes to comics like the adaptation-continuation Creed: The Next Round, which promises participation from the original’s big star (Michael B. And if Cates and Stegman are on the case, then we’re going to be delightfully wading in the filth right alongside Oliver and company.įinal Thought: No one can hate you the way you fully hate yourself. But then maybe that’s the point: if we’re to see Oliver’s redemption, he needs to get into some truly deep and dark places. Without spoiling too much, it would seem he’s going to take on perhaps a more antagonistic role, and that could be interesting if not a little hard to swallow given the inroads that he’s made to becoming a better person. My only issue, though, is the state of Oliver in this forthcoming arc. Really, Stegman’s art has been a consistent source of joy (and terror) across this arc it’s captured the ’90s edge every time but kept everything feeling deeply human and nearly intimate. And Stegman’s art for this issue gets other places to shine, including a great little twist involving Oliver’s wife, Elynor, that sets up some huge stakes for the second arc. It’s clear that Stegman knows how to use the human anatomy to churn stomachs while also extending the process of Oliver giving in to finally let go of it all. It’s a process made all the more gory and unsettling (and super effective from a storytelling perspective) thanks to Ryan Stegman’s art. New isn’t always better, as Oliver sees first hand, but transformation through sacrifice seems to be a perfect lesson for our wayward hero. This is a story about destruction - not only of the evil in the world but how those very same acts and instincts can build something new. It feels hugely shocking, yeah, but never in a way that the specific act is somehow cheapened. The result is perhaps the most uncomfortable and yet somehow poignant expression of this book’s efforts, with Oliver deliberately engaging in torture and mutilation to banish his demons (both metaphorical and the literal, evil wizard kind). It was certainly a compelling spin for the book, which mostly left behind the Harry Potter-esque connotations for a full on The Crow-ian experiment in torturing your darlings in the name of greater truth.Īnd in issue #8, we get to really and truly see what happens when Oliver suffers, as he contends with the final battle (of this arc, at least) in his lifelong obsession with combating the shadow of Everkeep. No, Cates went all the way with it, and The Boy Who Lived (Like A Loser Grouch) was transmogrified into a full on voodoo doll. ![]() In my review of issue #7 of Vanish, I mentioned how Donny Cates wasn’t satisfied with Oliver Harrison as some mere stand-in/representation.
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