Sunday, January 26, 2014

1st Impressions: ALL NEW FATHOM # 5

ALL NEW FATHOM # 5
Written by David Wohl & Frank Mastromauro
Art by Alex Konat, Mark Roslan & Peter Steigerwald
Aspen Comics


FLIPPING THROUGH:
                Open this issue with Aspen, Chance and Judith having some lunch till unexpected trouble finds them. They get help from Fyodor Luzhin, the Russian that offered a job dealing with Blue/Military weaponry. Because of ice popping up everywhere, Aspen and Chance head to Russia with Fyodor to see how bad things are. And things only get worse when some secrets revealed end up causing tension between Aspen and Fyodor.

ART:
                Konat has got his stride here. The pencils in this issue are by far some of the best work in Konat’s career. With Roslan’s inks, there was such rich and detailed panel work that the most mundane actions were quite breath taking to look at. Aspen looks absolutely beautiful this issue and Chance is rigged as ever.
                Konat and Roslan give us great panel composition and kinetic action that really are a feast to the eyes. Steigerwald’s colors are a perfect fit to Konat and Roslan’s work. The colors were used well, with a nice blend of shading and tone shifts to set the right mood for each panel.  The backgrounds are nice and detailed as well.  And the overall look of the book is just magnificent. This is how you kick off the new year!

WRITING:
                Wohl does a great job building up events this issue. Using the plot that Mastromauro and he created, Wohl weaves a great issue that helps build upon previous issues and starts setting the stage for the next set of issues. After last issue being very Vana heavy, we only get one scene with her and her “daughter”, which turns out to be fine. Aspen and Chance get a good amount of development this issue. Aspen knows she is in a rock and a hard place and she knows she needs help; hence her going to Russia after being adamantly against it originally. This gives Wohl an opportunity to show us the growth that Aspen is having; dealing with doing the right thing.
                Chance stands behind Aspen during her trip to Russia; finding himself ready to fight again even after they had walked away from each other before. There was even the awkward question if they were a couple and they both said now at the start of the issue; although, you can definitely seen the tension between them.  It is a good touch on the relationship between these two characters to see where they are now.
                Fyodor did not end up being as much of a scumbag as I thought he would be, which I give Wohl kudos for. There are plenty of them already in this book.  Yet, besides that, there is a lot of set up to the end and Wohl paces the entire issue well; giving us a solid ending.

OVERALL IMPRESSION:
                Best issue of the series yet. Writing and Art was absolutely incredible. 

RATING:

                I give All New Fathom # 5 … a 10 … out of 10. Pick it up on January 29th!

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