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CODENAME: KNOCKOUT #3
"The Devil You Say Epilogue: Little Orphan Angela"
Mildly Recommended (6/10)
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DC Comics/Vertigo imprint
Writer: Robert Rodi
Pencils: Louis Small, Jr.
Inks: Mark Farmer
Colors: Moose Baumann
Letters: Jack Morelli
Editor: Tony Bedard
Price: $2.50 US/$4.25 CAN |
I'm beginning to be a bit distressed by the way this series is going. I started out loving it, but have slowly grown disenchanted with successive issues, and this one is the weakest yet. Part of that is due to a lower laugh quotient, as Rodi finishes setting up his status quo and exploring the somewhat boring Angela Devlin, leaving Go-Go Fiasco to a couple of quick scenes. Part of it is that he spends the entire issue leading up to the same exact cliffhanger he ended the last issue on. But the biggest part of it is that this issue features a big change in tone, from wacky sex comedy to a more intense personal drama, and since I haven't really been made to care about these characters as more than vehicles for jokes yet, it wound up feeling like a "very special episode" of The Three Stooges. Which is to say, I found it jarring to say the least.
However, for all the complaints I have about
the sudden change in tone, I do have to admit that I felt a bit more of a
connection with Angela by the end of this issue. She's still really hard to
relate to, a drop-dead gorgeous sex bomb with superspy training, but the notion
of wanting romance and wanting to fit in is universal, and even her brief
happiness with Marcus is tempered by complications from her parents. There's
also some fun flirtation between Marcus and Angela and equally cute banter at
the dinner table, although Rodi is running dangerously close to making Angela
out as a bit of an airhead.
It's clear that one of the defining
conflicts of the series is going to be between Angela and her parents, and Rodi
has built both relationships so credibly that I still don't know which way
Angela has chosen to jump at the end of the issue. And of course, the friendship
between Angela and Go-Go is thoroughly believable, built on a teasing sort of
friendship and things in common that the two can't possibly have with anyone
else. Though they're both sexually adventurous, their most intimate
relationships are actually with someone they won't ever have a sexual encounter
with.
While the writing is somewhat uneven for me,
Rodi isn't getting much help in the art department. I don't know whether it's
Small's pencils, Farmer's inks, Baumann's colors or (I suspect) a mixture of all
three, but the artwork is often unclear and rarely attractive. In a faux
cheesecake/beefcake book, that's a fairly major problem, and when the big action
sequence at the end is all but incomprehensible, that's not too helpful either.
A little more consistency in the artwork, particularly faces that don't change
from panel to panel, and a lot more clarity in storytelling, would help
considerably.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review. |
