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MAVIS #3
"Mavis, Mavis, Mavis!"
Recommended (7/10)
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Exhibit A Press
Writer/Artist: Batton Lash
Art Assists: Derek Ozawa & Melissa Uran
Editor: Jackie Estrada
Price: $2.95 US |
The Mavis specials have now become an annual occurrence, and while she's not my favorite character in Supernatural Law, I can admit that there's a lot to like and a lot of interesting facets to the character, and she always seems to fill up a special nicely. In this particular case, I found Lash's plot and resolution a little too familiar (the same complaint I had when Busiek tackled a similar plot in Avengers 2001 a week ago),
especially as the storytelling hammered the point home repeatedly, but the
return of numerous puns and some interesting developments in the life of Mavis
and her friend Bonnie made for an enjoyable read.
Supernatural Law is actually something of a soap opera, with continuing subplots and
character development that serve as an interesting background to the amusing
high concept of The Practice Meets The Universal Monsters. This issue is in that
tradition, with the story very much fixed in the timeline of the series, dealing
with the temporary office situation caused by office destruction in issues
#28-29 and with the Los Angeles relocation of Toby and Ben. Though the central
plot of the issue is Mavis's split into three parts, the background subplots of
the office reconstruction and the troubled relationships of Toby, Mavis, Ben and
Bonnie all move forward at the same time.
When I first read this series, I was
delighted to find it littered with puns, and I was a little disappointed that
the puns had faded somewhat from the ongoing series. They're back with a
vengeance this issue, from the descriptions of the office as "ghastly" to the
many, many plays on the number three that come up as a result of Mavis's
predicament. And despite the point that Mavis was three different facets of the
same person being hit a little too often and hard, I have to admit that the
revelation of how she got split was a nice bit of misdirection and revelation.
Lash is not always as flashy as a lot of
artists, but he's a very effective storyteller, and he does some really nice
work with parallel panels in this issue, showing what each Mavis is up to and
contrasting it with what her other thirds are doing. And as a bonus, the art
this issue is completed by pinups from several of my favorite artists, including
Alex Robinson, Lea Hernandez and Mike Kunkel.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review. |
