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NOBLE CAUSES #3
Recommended (8/10)
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Image Comics
"In Sickness & In Health Part Three"
Pencils: Patrick Gleason
Colors: Chris Sotomayor & Jeremy Roberts
"Common Ground"
Pencils: Jeff Johnson
Colors: J. Brown
Writer: Jay Faerber
Inks: John Wycough & Damon Hacker
Letters: Ray Dillon
Price: $2.95 US/$4.60 CAN |
Noble Causes is a perfect blend... not just of soap
opera and super-heroics, but of old school super-hero style writing with the new
and edgier content that makes up a lot of today's books. Faerber is writing a
book that revolves around relationships, whether romantic, sexual or simply
familial, and while the characters in the relationships are anything but normal,
their interesting dysfunctions are based less around super-powers and more
around understandable human desires and foibles. However, the introduction of
powers keeps this from being a talking heads (or slapping faces) type of soap
opera, and instead introduces an exciting level of action as well, delivered in
style by Patrick Gleason and a variety of big name guest artists.
Faerber has done a great job
of capturing the feel of a bickering soap opera family, with a relatively
complex structure, without making it hard for readers to grasp. The constant
addition of a "guide to the Nobles" in the back is a great idea and a help in
this, but even without it, the relationships and distinctive personalities come
through. There's even room for some subtlety, whether it's the frustration that
new family member Liz feels or the conflicted (counter-programmed?) personality
of Rusty.
The artwork on the book is
also very impressive, as Gleason does a good job on differentiating the faces of
the various characters. He can handle the emotions required for each character,
as well as giving subtle hints about what's going on. The attacker who hits
Zephyr has some distinguishing characteristics that make guessing his identity a
little easier, for example. I also really appreciated the work on the brawl
between Rusty and Frost, which is as good an example of a brutal super-powered
battle as you'll find.
This week we see the launch of Way of the Rat from Crossgen, featuring art from
Jeff Johnson. Johnson's work can also be found on the backup this issue, one of
the stronger backups so far, that tells the tale of how Race Noble and one of
the family's enemies became friends. It's a great example of compressing time
into a few pages, but fully exploring the results of that time passing, and it's
a nice fleshing out of two characters as well.
If I have a complaint about Noble Causes, it's the same one I've had since the
very beginning. While the backup features are always entertaining and shed light
on the history of the characters, they also cut down significantly on the space
available for the main story. This issue, as with the rest of them, sometimes
feels a little cramped, with all the character moments and plot developments
that Faerber is introducing, and while it's a good read regardless, I do find
myself wishing that Faerber had a little more room to expand on some of the more
interesting developments.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board. |
