Sunday, April 20, 2014

1st Impressions: ALL NEW SOULFIRE # 4

ALL NEW SOULFIRE # 4
Written by Frank Mastromauro &  JT Krul
Art by V. Ken Marion, Mark Roslan, Erick Arciniega & Kyle Ritter
Aspen Comics

FLIPPING THROUGH:
                As we open our book, readers get to feast their eyes on Michael, who is seemingly an angel. I say seemingly cause Malikai doesn’t really believe Michael. Meanwhile, during some fights in Pandemonium, Benoist, PJ and Alori watch as one combatant, Brix, beat his adversary … then beat him again to a bloody pulp.  Grace is dealing with feeling a lack of joy with magic as Vanyss gives her a different perspective. And there is a traitor amongst the group .. .



WRITING:
                Krul does a solid job this issue, handling multiple plot elements and giving everything just enough attention so that nothing is neglected. We get some strong character development for PJ, Grace, Malikai, Vanyss and Alori this issue as each of the plot points start building. Krul and Mastromauro’s plots begin to open up new mysterious with each one while examining this new place where technology meets magic.
                One of the things I love most about the issue is that Krul isn’t afraid of showing Malikai’s more selfish nature as well as some strong development for PJ. As the plots sprang forth, there is a lot of talk of belief when it came to Michael, which drove Malikai up the wall. Sonia’s reaction definitely seemed very natural.
                The overall issue flowed extremely well, allowing for character moments to come in and sit well enough.  A strong showing by Krul this issue.

ART:
                Marion just gets better and better. The detail in this issue is sick. Marion does a great job giving readers this world where there are grand buildings, lots of lights outside and all sorts of different places. Marion does not skip on detail for characters as people looked different and had different proportions, depending on the character.
                Panel work is pretty solid as we got some really nice panels and angles within the panels. Simple things like a looking down angle from Grace flying to a tilt on Benoist after beating Brix shows Marion has a good eye and knows how to construct good panels. Roslan makes sure each and every pencil is inked to really set off Marion’s pencils to their best. This gives great detail that helps jump the work right out of the page. And the colors by Arciniega and Ritter produce these great images to jump at the readers. And while people may think that there is similar face syndrome for some characters, overall, Marion and Roslan do a good job of making each character distinct. A solid job by this art team.

OVERALL IMPRESSION:
                The art is amazing. The story is solid. There are some big mysterious to be revealed and the traitor amongst the group really sets things off. I believe we are about to get into the third act of this story and looking forward to it.

RATING:

                I give ALL NEW SOULFIRE # 4 a solid 8 … out of 10. Pick it up Wednesday!!

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