AZRAEL #9

Review by: TheNextChampion

What did the
iFanboy
community think?

47
Pulls
Avg Rating: 3.1
 
Users who pulled this comic:
Users who reviewed this comic:
Written by FABIAN NICIEZA
Art by RAMON BACHS & JOHN STANISCI
Cover by FRANCESCO MATTINA

Size: 32 pages
Price: 2.99

A sad day to be an Azrael fan, a Fabian Nicieza fan, or both. The last issue for the man to write this strong, B-level comic book. There have been a lot of bumps on the road, no thanks to Ramon Bachs, but for the most part this has been an enjoyable series. Can the last issue by this team disappear into the night with a strong ending?

Part of me wants to think whether this decision of Nicieza leaving was by choice or force. I say this because this doesn’t feel like an ending for the writer. I know this series is still continuing so it’s not like everything can be resolved right away. Still it doesn’t feel like Nicieza gives anything at all for Hine to work with. Other then Lane going insane and Ra Al Ghul (two things already a factor in this book) nothing else really is set here. Lane fights White Ghost this issue and ironically the villain is the hero since Lane is under the control of the Deadly Sins. Instead of a massive fight we get a discussion of faith and we see how in Lane’s childhood the topic of faith came up a lot. It’s smartly written and as always it leaves me with a lot of questions in the actual topic for religion.

Thank god Ramon Bachs is gone forever. Tired of his artwork, tired of the horrible colorist/inkers he works with, tired of everything about the art in this series. Guillem March might not be great but he’s 100x better then this guy. Hell there are even pages upon pages here where the same panels are used constantly! It’s like Bachs gave up and just photocopied some of the panels to get a whole page in. At least a guy like Greg Land will work hard to photocopy Pamela Anderson and morph her into Emma Frost for twenty-two pages.

So on one hand I’m sad to see this series lose a creative talent. On the other hand I’m thrilled to see one go. It’s just a shame that both sides couldn’t come together to make one final, good issue. It’s not a bad copy mind you, it’s just pretty much forgettable and a ‘meh’ way to end a run. As much as I’ll miss Nicieza I hope David Hine and March can keep the good times going with this series.

Story: 4 - Very Good
Art: 1 - Poor

Leave a Comment