Straight Forward Reviews: X-O Manowar issue 17

X-O Manowar is back in the Straight Forward eye of scrutiny. Last issue saw some nice tension building and was a worthy buy. Is this issue worth looking at too or is it a skip?

Review by Jeremias de León

Publisher Valiant Comics

Writer Robert Venditti

Artist Lee Garbett

Story

This issue starts off at a slower pace than the last one with Aric and his people starting to live on Earth. There's a nice contrast being shown throughout the issue of what Aric is going through and what his subjects are going through. The dialog in this issue comes off as pretty natural for the people Aric rules over. You really do feel that they're from another time and place when they interact with normal society.

There's also the buildup to what Valiant has been promoting with Aric and pretty much the rest of the Valiant universe. We see what some of Aric's subjects do when they decide to act on their own and the tension between the world governments and Aric building.

Art

The art has this very nice style to it that makes it look like each panel caught a moment. The line art pulls of flowing hair and wrinkling clothes and curling facial expressions beautifully. Every panel really did look like a snapshot.

Verdict

Although the taking a break in action is a fine thing to do for character development and for plot details to pop up, I felt like it took a little too much time on Aric's random subordinates who think they shouldn't be farming. I know it was there for a very important reason, I just felt like it could have been about 2 or 3 pages less about them and that those 2 or 3 pages could have been used showing the tension growing with Aric and the world governments.

Other than that it's a fantastic issue, not everything can be just flat out action and they did the right thing slowing things down to develop things. I just felt somethings could have used more developing and other things didn't need as much. I give X-O Manowar an 8.5 out of 10. Still a very worthy buy.

Straight Forward Reviews: Executive Assistant Assassins #12

This is straight forward reviews and this time we're looking at the newest Executive Assistant Assassins.

Review by Jeremias de León


Story

The story is, as the character Marty McFly from Back to the Future would say, "heavy". It's also quite engaging. It centers around the new assassin Daisy and her past just before becoming an executive assistant.

She goes through quite a bit and you see through her eyes what makes her the way she is in the beginning of the comic. Some would say that although it is extreme it's probably not impossible for someone in her position to be mentally unbalanced and make the choices she does. Or at least the writing made me believe that. Also worth noting you don't actually see her make the choices in this issue but what leads up to them. Spoiler free synopsis right there for you.

Also worth noting is the character interactions, Daisy feels really fleshed out and quite smart from the times she speaks to her father and other characters. Also her inner monologue reveals quite a bit of her personality. She doesn't necessarily seem psychotic but all the things she's felt has shaped her and it looks like she wants to make others feel the way she did.

Art

The art in this issue is, well, fantastic. The dark colors and the faceless people in the beginning of the comic with the normal colors and more realistic style in the rest of the comic make a nice contrast. With the beginning of the comic showing Daisy as basically a hyper trained killer and the rest of the comic she's a mostly normal girl though already showing she is very smart.

Verdict

This issue gripped me. I already gave out a 10 earlier and I don't give those out like candy but the writing in this issue was just so well done and Daisy's emotion and her struggle was so believable that I couldn't put the comic down. That's what a comic is supposed to do. Make you want to keep reading. So even though I don't want to see as that guy giving out two 10s already I have to give it a 10 out of 10.