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1. shiveringking8 says:

   October 24, 2011 at 3:27 pm

   I’ve gotten really confused reading this month to month, but I still love the concept and art enough to see it through. Maybe once I can read them all through together it will make more sense.

   Can anyone tell who any of the main characters are? I can’t keep anybody straight.

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   • TheNextChampion says:

     October 24, 2011 at 3:33 pm

     I know I don’t know what’s going on.

     Stuff like Hickman’s take on war and what not are fascinating to read. But everything else feels so compressed it’s like Hickman never had a good chance to telling a story here. But Pitarra’s art is what made me pick up all four issues.
   • KenOchalek says:

     October 24, 2011 at 3:42 pm

     Yeah, as much as I’ve enjoyed the artwork and some of the concepts, the story and characters haven’t hung together for me month-to-month. I’ll reread the whole thing with this last issue and hope that it reads better in one go.

     That said, with the high quality design of the single issues, I don’t regret buying this in single issues.
   • AaronBlock says:

     October 24, 2011 at 3:50 pm

     I don’t have the books on hand right now, but as far as I understand it: Dom and his friend (let’s just call him Wedge) are training to be Red Wing pilots. Dom kind of sucks at it, but Wedge is killer diller. Both their fathers were Red Wing pilots who apparently died on a mission, but it turns out Dom’s dad managed to survive his exposure to the time stream and ended up in the past with some Aztecs/Mayans/Incas (I’m guessing Aztecs based on the visuals but I don’t think the book specified, and I don’t know my ancient civilizations so well).

     He and a leader-elder type teach each other about their worlds, but then a future version of Dom from a parallel timeline kidnaps him, and explains that everything is screwed up because of the previous generation, i.e. bad parenting. And it turns out that Evil Alterna-Dom is also attacking the present, where his present self is fighting back in a Red Wing with Wedge and their hot shot female instructor, Porkins. Again, Wedge is an ace pilot so he tries a time-leap gambit to take the attack to the enemy, and ends up confronting something terrifying and then being destroyed by time, the same as Dom’s father.

     I second the idea that it’ll read better collected, but I’ve been loving this month to month. I was gobsmacked by issue three. I think it’s less about story and character and more about a feeling of dread and guilt, though. Maybe not. I guess we’ll find out on Wednesday.
   • USPUNX says:

     October 24, 2011 at 4:08 pm

     Agree with what all four of you said. (AaronBlock thanks for the summary!) I also think it is more about ideas rather than characters and plot. That can be frustrating but pretty much all of Hickman’s creator owned stuff is like that. I mean can anyone, without looking, name a single character in Transhuman, Nightly News, Red Mass for Mars, or Pax Romana(other than the pope)? I know I can’t but I can tell you what the theme and central idea of all four of those are. Hickman is full of interesting ideas but he doesn’t seem to have mastered the ability to marry those ideas to interesting characters like Morrison and Ellis have. (Although his FF stuff has been full of great character moments)

     I for one really like it. He kind of reminds me of Stephen Baxter or Alister Reynolds type hard sci-fi, ideas take the forefront and character development and plot take somewhat of a backseat.
   • TheNextChampion says:

     October 24, 2011 at 9:06 pm

     @USPUNX: To be fair, I think Red Mass for Mars and Pax Romana have good stories in them. They have a clear plot from a to b and it isn’t confusing. The characters aren’t well defined but the book is good enough to not really notice it.

     Here it is like reading Hickman’s early notes and he never even did a rough draft to get a clear sense of what the plot is.
   • USPUNX says:

     October 25, 2011 at 4:33 pm

     Red Mass and Pax Romana definitely have good, clear plots to them. I was just saying Hickman seems to be more focused on the ideas in his stories rather than the plot or character. I don’t mean that in a bad way, just that the plot is more there to help develop and flesh out a complex and interesting idea rather than to move the comic from beginning to end.
   • FormerPoetLaureate says:

     October 27, 2011 at 11:22 am

     Yeah, they all look alike to me. I can’t tell who is who.
2. froggulper says:

   October 24, 2011 at 3:56 pm

   The funny thing is, I don’t think Hickman’s character-work in FF is any better, but in FF we already know who the characters are, so we don’t notice Hickman’s emptiness as much. Don’t get me wrong, I still like Hickman. He’s a really unique writer, but part of what makes him unique sort of inherently leads to “empty” plots and characterizations at times. In SHIELD, I actually like the stand-offishness and emptiness: it feels neat to me. In FF, it’s not as empty, but the emptiness that’s there isn’t as noticeable (because we already feel like the characters are well-rounded people). Andwith something like Red Wing, right from the beginning I decided to hold off. If I read it, it’s going to have to be in trade.

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   • JimBilly4 says:

     October 24, 2011 at 4:26 pm

     I have felt his character stuff in FF has been outstanding. But maybe you are right in that he didn’t have to create these characters from nothing, but instead took the detailed characters other writers had built and gave them great character moments. I think one thing that is mildly off putting about this series, as opposed to Pax Romana (which I just read and loved) is that it feels like a piece in which we SHOULD be getting deep into the characters. Pax never struck me that way. I was fine not knowing what really drives the mercenaries or the priests. A character sketch was enough for the story he was telling. Here, it feels odd not to know more about these young pilots. The way the story is structured, it seems that we should care when they get killed. And we don’t. Still loving the cool ideas and art, but it does feel flawed.
   • AaronBlock says:

     October 24, 2011 at 5:24 pm

     That’s an interesting reading, JimBilly. I wonder if the dissonance you’re feeling has something to do with narrative expectations…maybe we only feel like we should care when these characters are killed because its the way things tend to go. And we don’t feel anything, because Hickman hasn’t given us reason to by design, and he’s working with a narrative built more from visceral reactions to design than old Freytag.
   • USPUNX says:

     October 24, 2011 at 9:04 pm

     @JimBilly: Really good point about Pax Romana. This series does feel like it should have more character development where other hickman series don’t so much. Really interested to see what Feel Better Now is like after the announcement that will be an OGN rather than a one shot.
3. Flash923 says:

   October 25, 2011 at 7:17 am

   Well; this is the last time I listen to the hype for a series. I have learned I probably want to read a little in the store before I buy anything. It is usually a trap for me when I buy a book on a little series and then bad or good I buy them till it is over. This time there was no way for me to continue on and hope it improves or the usual feeling of I am going to miss something. This receives a big 1 for the whole series; the story was just all over even though I do understand what was going on and all of the back stories. It just seemed to be to much story and the writer tried to put it all in this one book. The art was pretty good however; those white pages just seemed cheap and pedestrian.

   Just sayin’,

   K

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4. AmirCat says:

   October 25, 2011 at 1:30 pm

   I guess I’m the only one who is enjoying this run. It’s not perfect, but the art is amazing and the story is big idea, big picture. That’s why I buy Hickman. If you’re a Hickman fan, you should already know that. If I wanted characterization, I’d read Robinson ( which I do) and if I wanted dialogue, I would read Bendis (which I also do) … not to mention others.

   The reason I love Hickman is because he dares to dream big, and he gives us shorter series that we don’t have to spend 60+ issues to figure out. Sure, he could use a few editors here and there, but when you buy Hickman’s creator owned books, you get an organic live piece of work that hasn’t been through the machine. It’s rough around the edges, but it’s unique, looks great, and shows you something you haven’t seen before.

   You get time traveling fighter pilots with awesome Quietly-esque art. Honestly, what else do you want?

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5. JNewcomb says:

   October 26, 2011 at 4:32 pm

   A buddy of mine, who loved Nightly News and then read Pax Romana said he can probably never again get in to Hickman because Nightly News is such a complete and explosive statement. it’s like everything will seem bland after.

   I’m starting to think he may be right. Henceforth, I’ll read only Hickman’s stuff where he does art as well. Because I love his artwork.

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   • AmirCat says:

     October 27, 2011 at 1:49 pm

     Transhuman is great too.
6. TheNextChampion says:

   October 26, 2011 at 10:06 pm

   What a ho-hum ending for a promising mini. I get what Hickman was trying to get at with the end; but he underwrote all of the characters for me to really care. The art by Nick Pitarra though has been solid for all four issues, even with the muddy coloring.

   3/5

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7. TurdSandwich says:

   October 27, 2011 at 12:46 am

   Yup, I was kinda disappointed with this also. I don’t mind the story not “ending”, but I felt like it really never started. We were thrown in from the beginning, which is fine, but you have to give the reader something more than concept. I agree that Pitarra drew some great stuff. Although that two page “splash” with 90% white page was pretty bold, I’m on the fence about that one, but oh well, no harm.

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8. tomistommy says:

   October 28, 2011 at 11:20 am

   This series really had some interesting concepts, but, man, what the fuck? The series was just way too compressed, the characters were so bland I didn’t even bother to remember their names, and that ending made no goddamn sense. I don’t regret reading it, but it could have used some more fleshing out.

   Also, what did the Aztecs have to do with anything?

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9. kennyg says:

   October 28, 2011 at 5:24 pm

   I agree with the majority of comments. I was really disappointed in the final issue. It just kind of… ended, abruptly. No resolution, no sense of what is at stake, it just stopped. I also couldn’t tell the men apart. The art was clean but didn’t differentiate enough on who was who, which probably hurt the plot. I didn’t understand if the whole father/son thing was literal, metaphorical, or a progenitor/descendent thing. Confusing. I’m going to re-read the whole thing in one sitting and see if it makes better sense.

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10. bigben2012 says:

    October 29, 2011 at 2:29 pm

    Um………………..wtf just happened……………..

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11. jmack says:

    October 29, 2011 at 9:58 pm

    what in the hell was this about

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12. USPUNX says:

    October 31, 2011 at 9:08 am

    This was a real let down. I agree with all the comments regarding the lack of story and abrupt ending but what also bugged me was the handcuffs. I mean seriously? A civilization that has the ability to travel through interstellar space, jump through time AT WILL, and strip an entire planet bare of resources has to use a type of handcuff we don’t even use in OUR time anymore? That was absolutely terrible. I can’t stand when a sci-fi story set in the far future uses an anachronism because they have written themselves into a corner. This civilization has seriously not created a better restraint? Nothing mechanized? Something with a digital lock rather than a 1,000 year of mechanical one? Maybe even the plastic ties we use today!!!! Terrible!!!

    I know it may seem like a small thing but its really not. Not only did it COMPLETELY break the reality of the world but it is also a MAJOR plot point. If he can’t break free, I mean if he can’t somehow unscrew a screw from his 18th century jail bench and then use it to pick his 14th century restraints, then the story is over. No defeating his evil son, no returning to the past (future?) to set up the Red Wing. Nothing. Everything hinges on those handcuffs and it was absolutely a huge deus ex machina and an unbelievably let down. I love Hickman but this issue was awful.

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13. wayne2001bc says:

    October 31, 2011 at 1:03 pm

    SPOILER. So, was the general actually Dom’s son?

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    • USPUNX says:

      October 31, 2011 at 5:39 pm

      That’s the impression I got. And since he experienced what he did in the future he came back as a better father and rather than his son being that evil overlord he founded the Red Wing. But somehow they are still fighting the evil version of his son too so its all very confusing. Then again I could have it all wrong.
14. Ruo21 says:

    November 2, 2011 at 1:53 am

    Done with Hickman… until his next series

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15. JimBilly4 says:

    November 14, 2011 at 4:44 pm

    I feel the whole story is some kind of time loop. A serpent swallowing its own tail, so to speak. I need to re-read it to see if that theory holds any water.

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