DETECTIVE COMICS #855

Review by: theswordisdrawn

What did the
iFanboy
community think?

947
Pulls
Avg Rating: 4.5
 
Users who pulled this comic:


Size: pages
Price: 3.99

I have to say that I’m actively astonished the some 70% of iFanboy members gave this their pick of the week. Utterly.

I loved the previous issue, but in all honesty I thought this one was a dud.

The bottom line, for me, is that you could have shortened the entire of this issue to 4 pages of panels and it would not have suffered.

In this issue nothing happened.

I’ve learnt nothing significant about the characters. I’ve not really seen the plot moved forward in any significant way. It is just one big punch up. And even that failed to deliver.

I first came up J.H. Williams’ art through Warren Ellis’ Desolation Jones. It was great. And to be honest, on a purely aesthetic level, it is gorgeous here too.

But as actual panels in this issue, it just does not work. The break up of each page is incredibly confusing – it’s bloody difficult to work out exactly who is striking who, and in several places just how a character have moved from one position to another.

Beautiful though the artwork is it jumps so awkwardly in places, that it just becomes a pain in backside to follow. It’s not quite the kind of difficult to follow that you get from say Chris Bachalo, where each panel can get so crowded with detail that you cannot tell what is going on. But really it’s not far off being as confusing. I’d love to hang art like this on my wall, but I wouldn’t choose to read it – because while the pane;s look amazing in their own right, as a storyboard they do not match up at all well.

The last issue was just so good. I can’t believe how inconsequential (And incomprehensible) this one was in comparison.

A great shame.

Story: 2 - Average
Art: 3 - Good

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