VERTIGO RESURRECTED WINTERS EDGE #1

Review by: TheNextChampion

What did the
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149
Pulls
Avg Rating: 4.2
 
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Written by NEIL GAIMAN, BRIAN K. VAUGHAN, GARTH ENNIS and more
Art by PAUL POPE, DAVE GIBBONS, SEAN PHILLIPS and more
Cover by PHILIP BOND

Size: 96 pages
Price: 7.99

What’s that you say? You want more pellet reviews…..Oh you don’t…..Well too bad!

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The Flowers of Romance: (Writer: Neil Gaiman, Artist: John Bolton) This is a nice, cute story about a Satyr trying to have one last hurrah at greatnest. Sometimes the little stories Gaiman does are the best, and this was a lot of fun to read. Although it is a bit disturbing that the premise is basically the satyr raping a woman…..Anyways, I loved the painted style of Bolton (BOLTON!!!!) and the opening splash page made me laugh a lot. Overall a fun little story to start off for the one-shot. (Story: 4/5, Art: 5/5)

Tell Me: (Writer: Paul Jenkins, Artist: Paul Pope) Once again, a Resurrected one-shot’s best story involves John Constantine. Just a great, heart warming tale about a man and woman who love each other. But it’s narrated mostly by Constantine so of course there is some swearing and negativity to it. But it was surprising to me just how touched I was by it and Jenkins does a great job making me care for these background characters. Then you have a very reserved Paul Pope doing the art. You can definitely tell it’s him cause no one else has his style. But it’s amazing to me just how cleaner it looks and how much detail is involved with each panel. Not saying I don’t love the style Pope uses now but if he wanted to go into more mainstream work, this style would win me over. Definitely the best story out of the bunch this time around. (Story: 5/5, Art: 5/5)

The Dreaming in “Deck the Halls”: (Writers: Caitlin R. Kiernan/Peter Hogan, Artist: Duncan Fegredo) Although not a Neil Gaiman story, it definitely feels like one since it involves his own creations. Gotta say that I would’ve love to see more of Mervin the Pumpkin then anyone else in the story. Nothing much happens here except Cain being a curmudgen and nothing much changes outside of that. The art was pretty good though, although it is a much looser and more more sketchy work then what I’m used to Duncan Fegredo. Still if you like his work on Hellboy recently, then you’ll like the art in this short story. (Story: 3/5, Art: 5/5)

Death-A Winter’s Tale: (Writer: Neil Gaiman, Artist: Jeff Jones) Neil Gaiman rears his head again for a pretty good story about Death. Not just on Death itself, the character Death. I liked how she complains about her job and how it effected mankind through out the years. There’s some great, painted art in this though which really sold me on the story. Never heard of Jeff Jones but he does some amazing layouts in here with very minimal colors used. Speaking of which, Jon J. Muth is the colorist and let me tell you: he is a fantastic artist. Go do yourself a favor and buy ‘The Mystery Play’ by Grant Morrison and you’ll see some fantastic artwork involved. (Story: 5/5, Art: 5/5)

All Those Little Girls and Boys: (Writer: Garth Ennis, Artist: Glyn Dillon) Yet another Constantine story and while it’s not as good as the first story, I enjoyed it a bit. Just a nice little look into Constantine’s past mixed in with some adult humor Garth Ennis is known for. I also liked the art in this as well and I was surprised it wasn’t Steve Dillon because it looks so much like his style. I gotta assume Glyn is related because the faces are so close to Steve’s original style but there are some little touches to make look unique. Also, great use of muted colors throughout with light red’s and bright yellow’s. (Story: 3/5, Art: 4/5)

Stories: (Writer: Peter Milligan, Artist: Sean Phillips) I have no idea what ‘The Minx’ is, but if I did then maybe I would’ve enjoyed this more. The story was confusing and I just didn’t care for the characters. Peter Milligan’s story from the first Resurrected title was great, but of course it goes back to my seemingly indifference with this. Also, some really bad Sean Phillips art in this. It has to be his early stuff because he can do much better then this. Easily the worst story of the group for this one-shot. (Story: 1/5, Artist: 2/5)

Books of Magic-Waiting for Good Dough: (Writer: Peter Gross, Artist: Michael Lark) A nice little story about the two dead kids from…..yet another Neil Gaiman story. (Noticing a trend here?) Gross does a good job making this feel like a Hardy Boys story and also writing everyone like kids. But a lot of credit should go to Michael Lark. Surprised he did the art for more of an uplifting story (it’s usually dark as hell in tone with his comics). Felt like I was reading a children’s story at points with the art. (Story: 4/5, Art: 5/5)

Another Bloody Christmas: (Writer/Artist: Dave Gibbons) This is a prose story, which hopefully doesn’t scare some people away. It’s a good one too with the 3rd Constantine story of the collection. Gibbons has a good handle on John and there’s some nice humor along here. The art that is provided here is really well done and Gibbons obviously put a lot of care into them. Just seeing Constantine punch ‘Santa’ in the face is all I need to enjoy this story. (Story: 4/5, Art: 5/5)

Sow and Ye Shall Reap: (Writer: Brian K. Vaughan, ArtistL Roger Petersen) Now I’m not so smart in the Swamp Thing universe, so the timeline of this story lost me a bit. Apparently Vaughn did a good twenty issue run on the character and I’d like to read it if ever collected. Onto the story, it definitely has a Vaughn flare to it. I love how it’s just a story on why mistletoes are actually deadly and how ironic it’s use is for the holiday. The art has a Mark Bagley-like quality to it and I like the coloring involved too. If anything this made me want to read this run of Swamp Thing and I hope DC is listening. (Story: 5/5, Art: 4/5)

How They Met Themselves: (Writer: Neil Gaiman…..again, Artist: Michael Zulli) Gee, another Gaiman story. Wonder if he gets more money the more stories and concepts they use in this one-shot? Joking aside, this was an okay story. This is about the Desire character, or at least loosely, and I like how horrible this guy is to his wife. The fact that he dug his wife up again just to get his poems back really is a jackass move. Art was pretty good, but not much else I can say about it. (Story: 3/5, Art: 4/5)

The last Resurrected title was fantastic because they really took some of the best of the best and put it all together. This one-shot? While it’s a solid read and I would recommend it to anyone, it definitely doesn’t have the luster like the previous one-shot. There definitely wasn’t a horrible comic in the first title like this one has with the Peter Milligan short. However there are some great Constantine stories in here and another collection of fantastic artists as well. I hope there is still more to this well of ‘lost’ or uncollected shorts Vertigo has to offer. Let’s just say I hope they pick some more gems this time around if there is a 3rd installment.

Story: 4 - Very Good
Art: 4 - Very Good

Comments

  1. Oh and I forgot to put for the Books of Magic short:

    I recently watched and read the story ‘Waiting for Godot’ in my writing class this month. So I was happy to see the title ‘Waiting for Good Dough’. 

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