Monthly (Comic) Book Club - September - Fathom vol. 115616
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| @xkonk I don’t think the lab was a military installation. There were some international tensions but it seemed to be a private facility. I’ll have to double check that when I get home. Joker was unaware of it and though he seems low enough on the ladder to be kept out of the loop. I think they would have told him it was there even if he knew nothing about what is being researched there. Quote: Originally Posted by xkonk I kind of figured if any of the other tests showed something unusual (like strange structures in the brain or lungs) they would move on to more detailed tests to investigate further |
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| Post 26 • IP flag post | ||
 If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| Issue 5: We've more specifically resolved some of the mystery with the underwater people, although it just verifies things that were fairly clear before. There's a group that wants to start warfare with humans, a group that doesn't, and they were both racing (represented by Killian and Cannon) to get Aspen on their side. It looks for now like Killian is winning. That said, I wish they'd move things along a bit more. Chance's drunken escapades are altogether too annoying to be taking up pages on their own unless it's going to pay off. And why is his brother getting the book intro treatment? And why is Aspen's roommate floating around the periphery (besides to provide someone else to wear extremely tight clothing)? Some books do a good job or otherwise earn all their backup characters popping up and keeping plotlines going, but I guess this one isn't doing it for me. I'm sure it will end up with something like Aspen switching back to the "help the humans" side with Chance and the roommate providing valuable government/news-spreading assists, but in the meantime it doesn't seem worth the few pages to have a conversation between the random kid and the random roommate. I know I've been fairly critical of the series so far, so I want to say something positive, but besides the quality of the artwork I'm not sure what to point to. Cannon saying that he isn't a cold-blooded killer but that he'll feed someone to the plankton? Chance singing immediately dated songs (that I still enjoy! but extremely dated)? The writing isn't that great and I'm not enjoying the pacing, so I'm struggling a bit. |
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| Post 27 • IP flag post | ||
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| Issue 6: the first page puts a spotlight (hangs a lampshade? not sure which is the better metaphor) on a big conceptual problem - Aspen has been a human her whole life (as far as she knows) and now over the course of a month or two she's ready to go to war on them. That's quite a turnaround! Granted, she knows pretty clearly that she isn't human now, and maybe she's a staunch conservationist and can get behind the general point that humans are ruining the oceans (although that hasn't been discussed in the book at all), but this is a big character change in a short period of time, nearly all of which has occurred off-panel. Might be hard to swallow. Aspen's first battle, meant to just be a test of her abilities, is awfully bloody considering that they said last issue that they hoped to resolve things without the loss of a single human life. Aaand I'm still skeptical of the Japanese-US war that's starting. This book must be taking place in an alternate universe where not only are there sea people, but international relationships and norms are very different. |
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Quote:Originally Posted by xkonk This seemed to me like some sort of manipulation was going on in the background. The Japanese fighters said the submarine was in Japanese waters which was confusing to the American pilots. So it felt like someone was feeding the Japanese pilots incorrect information in order to put them in a position to escalate conflict. At this point it seems suspicion was already building up on the Japanese side. The information they have on the lab’s destruction seemed like it was obtained via their own channels rather than a debriefing from the military. They know the lab was destroyed by the US military but they suspect it was deliberate to prevent them from from learning more about the vehicle and I think the oil rig attack was attributed to the Americans and the crew was killed before they could communicate that it wasn’t. So it kind of fees to me like the conflict has been engineered by an outside force. I do agree that it’s a little strange that the pilots would report a strange skybeam as a torpedo attack. I think a better solution, storytelling-wise would’ve been to have one of Killian’s underwater fighters fire at the sub from below to make a more convincing “torpedo attack.” At this point, I wouldn’t think it strange for the conflict to escalate as it did had the attack on the submarine been more convincingly attributed to the Japanese fighters. I wonder why they (both the writers and the villains) decide to use the space weapon, aside from being more visually impressive. lol, honestly the more unbelievable thing to me was that the beach only had the two kids surfing! I live in San Diego so I know some of the locations that are being referred to. The beach where Aspen is handed off, judging by the gliders and the cliffs, seems to be La Jolla, though it is nowhere near as lonely as it is depicted here, even 20 years ago. |
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| I’m enjoying the book so far but the thing I’m feeling is that Aspen is not the main character, despite this ostensibly being her book. The conflict established thus far is between Killian and Cannon and Aspen’s the instrument to reach their goals. I don’t mind the time spent with the side characters but at halfway through this arc I would’ve preferred they spent that time with Aspen and her training/indoctrination with Killian instead of reducing it to a brief montage that’s as long as the time they spent with Aspen aimlessly swimming with dolphins. Speaking of supporting characters there have been a couple that just seemed to have disappeared like the watery person that saved Aspen after the explosion and the scientist from the lab that turned up alive when Aspen awoke at the hospital. So apparently Aspen lives on Coronado, which is not a cheap place to lice and having a place right on the beach, she must be doing pretty well as a marine biologist lol. The little kid, Cameron, also confirmed that he was surfing off of Black’s Beach in La Jolla, Funny thing about Black’s is that it’s a clothing-optional beach so make of that what you will lol |
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| I like the issue 6 because it starts focusing on Aspen. Heck, I think this issue has the most spoken lines for Aspen of any issue do far. I do agree there are some structural problems. This issue should’ve come maybe an issue or two earlier and following an issue’s worth of Killian teaching and training Aspen and bringing her over to his side. Then the story can have her slowly realize Killian’s methods are not all that peaceful, even beyond “necessary casualties.” Now that we’re here though, I do like the subtle development of Kyla and Taras, probably because it’s happening through their interaction with and in the immediate vicinity of Aspen without putting that story on hold for something happening thousands of miles away. |
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| Post 31 • IP flag post | ||
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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Quote:Originally Posted by dielinfinite This could all be true. If I'm remembering correctly off the top of my head, they were supposed to be near Midway when the attack happened. That's nowhere near Japanese waters. The pilots would certainly have to have some enormously incorrect information to think they were near Japan instead of 2000 miles away. Even still, can you imagine what it would feel like to wake up and see that the US and Japan fired on each other? That would be pretty left-field, right? Maybe we aren't seeing the in-universe newspapers writing articles about a chill between the governments but it feels very out of place to me. I think we're supposed to be feeling the stakes of this conflict between the water people and the US military in the know, and the lengths to which the key players are willing to go, but there's a disconnect from what else is getting sucked into the situation. We have over 50,000 military members stationed in Japan. What's happening to them? I know some of this would be out of scope for a comic book, and no one cares about the geopolitical implications when Knull wraps the planet in symbiotes or whatever. But since they're spending a fair amount of time telling us about what the military is doing and noting how the events are driving the countries to the brink of war, I feel like it's not doing that portion of the story justice. |
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| I know the first post says this week is 7-10 but I am stopping at 9 since that is where the arc ends and then I’ll do the last two arcs next week I enjoyed issue 7. It was a pretty fast-paced action issue with Cannon leading an assault on the converted underwater lab in order to get Aspen. Kya, something of a grounding presence for Aspen since she joined Killian, turns out to have been working with Cannon but is injured in the escape. Killian is able to trigger his…weapon, I think it is but we don’t know what it does exactly. It is somehow related to the ancient satellites. The story does feel like it’s moving into it’s final act with Aspen coming back to her senses to help stop Killian in the coming events. |
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| Issue 8 is the big reveal, we find out more about Aspen’s past, aside from “you're one of the sea people,” and we learn what Killian’s plan is. Cannon explains that Aspen’s parents were leaders in their civilization but were killed by Killian’s expansionist faction. They attempted to kidnap Aspen and her brother but thanks to Aspen’s power, they escaped. This was vaguely tied to the disappearance of the cruise ship, Paradise. Aspen reappeared but her brother did not. My guess is that Aspen’s brother might be that blue figure that was protecting her earlier and that Killian used to to power the third generator for his blue sun. The issue also tried to provide a bit more context for the military action between the US and Japan, framing it more like a series of covert military actions than an all out war. However the blue sun weapon is attributed to Japan, heightening military tensions. We also learn that Killian’s plan is basically to drill into the earth and flood the inner world where Aspen’s people are from. His weapon, actually powered by the satellites he convinced the military he would destroy, cleared a large patch of ocean causing tidal waves that hit coastal cities. Cannon and Aspen arrive at the center of the beam to stop Cannon. |
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| Post 34 • IP flag post | ||
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| Issue 9 wraps up the arc very much in the fashion of a blockbuster action movie. It’s a big fight as the fate of the world hangs in the balance. During the fight, Killian throws Aspen into the beam, thinking it would kill her, while he and Cannon battle it out. Turns out the beam didn’t kill Aspen, it overcharged her. She kills Killian and destroys the blue sun. Cannon and Chance survive but Aspen is missing for half a page before reappearing. Looking back on this first arc, I think Turner does great with the action scenes but connecting them gives him a bit of trouble. I think he has a lot of ideas he thinks are cool, and they would be, except he hasn’t yet grasped how to edit himself and focus on what is important for the story. He spends a lot of time with side characters that’s not really necessary right now. Aspen’s roommate gets a few pages in the middle but her introduction and then her reporting on the Blue Sun and US/Japanese hostilities is really all we need. If Chance’s brother becomes important later then we shouldn’t have spent the time with him now. There’s also a bit too much focus on subplots that aren’t developed enough or don’t contribute to the main conflict enough. There are so many pages devoted to the Navy officer covering for Killian in exchange for Killian destroying the satellites but it doesn’t really go very far. The US/Japan conflict similarly takes up too many pages. It’s somewhat ancillary to the main story so it very much would’ve been better as a case of told, not shown. So overall, I thought the arc started well, and I thought the ending was a big flashy action movie ending, which I don’t mean to suggest is bad but in order for it to work it has to be built up to better. That’s where I think the book suffers the most, the middle. Aspen becomes a character in her own story too late into the story that she almost feels like a supporting character as the real conflict we see is mostly between Killian and Hawke. So, If I were editing this, I would’ve suggested that after the undersea lab exploded at the end of issue 2, I would’ve had Killian and his gang succeed in kidnapping Aspen. In the next issue we are following Aspen as Killian teaches her about her powers and their people and he slowly instills in her his own ideology and goals while she is confused and receptive. This would also give us time to really crystallize Killian’s motives as it first comes across as a seas vs surface conflict but it’s later revealed that it’s more of a political issue where he wants to force his people out of their isolations. Anyways, the following issue would have Aspen continuing to be trained by Killian and starting to go out on missions while Cannon is trying to find her. Maybe a mission either goes wrong or Killian goes off the original plan and in a moment behaves more brutally and lethally than Aspen thinks is necessary. The event shakes Aspen and confuses her even more. The following issue, Killian would take advantage of Aspen’s confusion and insist that she must learn to fight and to kill. Killian takes her on another mission where she is forced to kill but she is is unsure of herself and begins questioning Killian’s more brutal tactics. After this we can connect back to issue 7 and finish off the story fairly close to how it is written, maybe use one more issue to let things breathe a bit more towards the end to make things feel less rushed and make the finale a little less abrupt. Overall though, I enjoyed what was started here. I don’t know if this was Turner’s first time writing a comic book series but inexperience certainly shows. I am curious to see me of the world he’s created and see more of the underwater civilization fleshed out. I really enjoyed the art, even beyond the cheesecake. The sequential work is well done and he does a great job at punctuating the issues with large set pieces. I also have to compliment the coloring work, which stood out on a few occasions, like when Aspen is watching the sunset while out on her surfboard and the last scene with everything bathed appropriately in blue from the giant sky beam. |
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| Post 35 • IP flag post | ||
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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xkonk private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by dielinfinite I just forgot that we had stuff to read this week, so I was slacking. But picking up now! |
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| Post 36 • IP flag post | ||
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| Issue 7: I'm glad that Aspen is confused about her own feelings, because I am too. I mentioned before that going from, basically, an academic to a somewhat-willing killer in a month was quite a shift in my mind. Aspen is apparently feeling the same way but when Cannon comes to break her out she doesn't seem to feel conflicted; she wants to stay where she is. Pretty much until Kyla is killed, and she hears that Chance is with them. Aspen must have a higher opinion of Chance than I do. I'm also unclear on what Cannon's plan was exactly. He didn't seem surprised or put off that his small team was immediately surrounded, and he apparently didn't have any more of a plan to get Aspen than to say "come on!". I guess he had some magic water thing to show her but didn't consider that she wouldn't want to take the time to see it. I hope that Killian's plan makes sense, because I don't have confidence that anyone else in the book is acting reasonably at all. A technical complaint: did your copy look like this? Maybe it's a bad scan (I'm reading online), but the text here gets awfully hard to read where the background is dark. Not a lot of contrast.  |
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| Post 37 • IP flag post | ||
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| Issue 8 finally gets to my question about the world at large, as apparently it takes an exclusive interview for anyone to realize that the US and Japan are at war. I took at look at the wikipedia article about the Japanese military back then, and I don't think the issue is quite right about the 'surprise' of the Japanese having a military. They've had a self-defense force (army, navy, and air force) starting since the 1950s. They have disavowed war, but they've had a mutual defense pact with the US since then. So it doesn't seem quite right to say that they don't have a standing military. A military that can shoot giant beams into space is, of course, a different story. More importantly to the plot, Killian's weapon starts going off. More than just 'clearing the water' like he tells the general, it pushes the water out and sends a tsunami out to coastal cities. Kind of ironically, part two doesn't work in water, so Cannon's plan is to flood the area again before Killian can drill a hole in the ocean floor. It isn't really clear why he wants to do that. The lowered ocean will be bad for humans, and he doesn't like humans, so fine. But it will also be bad for the sea people (according to Connor). So what's the game here? This issue is a break in the action, basically serving as a big exposition and backstory dump. But since it's doing that I wish we had a better idea of what exactly the final goal is. |
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| Post 38 • IP flag post | ||
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| Issue 9 illustrates, for about a panel, the issue with people just getting into machines (usually planes for this complaint) and magically knowing how to use them - they don't actually know how to use them. Chance is a pilot but has (rightfully!) been complaining that he has no idea how to fly Cannon's sea people craft. Cannon apparently didn't take the time to show him during their three hour trip to the energy field last issue, so now he activates the self-destruct system instead of shooting at the bad guys. He gets it worked out within a second though. I'm not a pilot but I do work in aviation and you see this pretty often in movies and whatnot. In real life, a pilot gets checked out on a specific aircraft. They could likely keep something else flying, but they wouldn't handle it well or know where all the bells and whistles are. Stories where a human gets into an alien craft and can do anything with it are absurd on their face. A more recent example is Wonder Woman 1984, where Steve Trevor gets into a 'modern' (for the movie's time) plane and flies it. There's basically 0 chance a guy who flew the mechanical aircraft of WWI could get an electronic aircraft going. It's a pet peeve. Once again, Cannon seems to have no particular plan. They flew to the energy field, landed, he gave a speech, and then when the bad guys show up they (Aspen, really) decide that Aspen needs to fly back out to the edge of the beam to try to do.... something. What is this dude doing? I guess we finally find out what Killian was going for. He wants to drill down to the sea people's original home, where I guess there are still people living. I'm not 100% sure why he needed all the other geopolitical stuff, other than maybe a little cover to build the beam stations, but maybe it was an extra benefit. But now that he's there he's going to kill everyone on the way out, except he accidentally ramps up Aspen's power to the point where she melts him and destroys the beam stations. Despite doing that, Cannon thinks that it must have killed Aspen, and is ok course wrong. Everything is wrapped up. Quote: Originally Posted by dielinfinite Quote: Originally Posted by dielinfinite I agree with all this. I can certainly get behind a 'stupid' action movie provided it's done well, but I kept getting sucked out of this one. There are so many subplots that break things up without a real payoff, and some general factual errors, that it was hard for me to stay in it. I don't usually pay attention to the editor but I did look back at 7 and then at the end and they were different people; maybe they lack of continuity was a problem. There's a line between world building and taking away from the story's momentum, and I think this went too far. But there are a lot of interesting ideas, so I'm happy enough that there are a few more issues to read. I hope they pull together a bit more. And maybe Chance will die. I don't usually hope for people to die, even fictional characters, but this guy is driving me nuts. |
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| Post 39 • IP flag post | ||
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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Quote:Originally Posted by dielinfinite I noticed that one issue was at least partially done by Liquid!, and I feel it was a missed opportunity to not just run with that pun. |
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Monthly (Comic) Book Club - October - Trio of Spooky Tales   Aliens: Genocide #1-4 The Crow #1-4 BPRD: Hollow Earth #1-3 Wk1 (10/4-10/10): Aliens: Genocide #1-4 Wk2 (10/11-10/17): The Crow #1-4 Wk3 (10/18-10/24): BRPD: Hollow Earth #1-3 |
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Quote:Originally Posted by xkonk I think that might be a bad scan. My copies can be difficult to read if you’re in low light but in decent reading conditions it was pretty legible  |
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| Post 42 • IP flag post | ||
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| Yeah, your copy looks much better. c'est la vie. | ||
| Post 43 • IP flag post | ||
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| So issue #10 starts a new arc and it seems to be going for a much lighter tone. Instead of some journey of self-discovery with the fate of the world hanging in the balance, the issue seems to be setting up a more straightforward, fun adventure. A mysterious giant sea creature has been spotted terrorizing people on the coast. Aspen catches sight of it and gives chase but is interrupted when a large underwater vessel jets by her. We Aspen finally use her skills as a marine biologist when she is trying to find out what kind of creature she saw. We learn that after Killian’s blue sun, species previously thought extinct have been reappearing. Suddenly, the pilot of the underwater vessel appears at her door and encourages her to join in his search for the creature. So, from what I’ve picked up, as little as a month has passed since the end of the previous arc and it looks like San Diego was left unscathed after the rush of tidal waves from Killian’s blue sun. The story also seems to address some of the biggest issues from the previous arc right off the bat. First, it jettisons a lot of the unnecessary supporting characters. Aspen’s reporter roommate is off working in New York, Chance is in hiding while still being UA, and Hawke is off doing his thing. This leads to the second issue the story seems to be addressing, Aspen is now the main character. She sees the sea monster and gives chase, she’s doing the research to find out what it was, and she’s the one choosing to get on the sea vessel. So all good changes! I am enjoying Turner’s art as always. I noticed less gratuitous cheesecake in this issue and maybe a bit more variety in body types. In the previous arc it seemed like everyone was either a swimsuit model or a bodybuilder. While there are still several swimsuits in this issue we also have the little kid at Sea World, the heavyset gambler from Vegas, and the mysterious old man that is hunting the monster. It is nice seeing Turner’s range a bit more instead of just seeing a few tricks. |
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| Issue 11 wraps up the little adventure. Baha leads Aspen in search of Big Mo. Baha tries to explain the complex mess of levers and pulleys that control the ship and leaves her to pilot while he tries to harpoon the beast. We learn that the sea monster Aspen saw was not actually Big Mo but one of two sidekicks to the real thing. Once Big Mo is spotted, Aspen makes a mess of piloting the ship. Big Mo damages it, forcing them to the surface. Once there, Aspen is knocked into the water and forced to fight the two little sidekick monsters. She tries using Baha’s junk to fight them but the junk is junk and ends up dispatching them with her aquatic powers. When Aspen comes face to face with Big Mo itself she realizes it’s an ancient beast and they have a bit of a gentlemen’s agreement and Big Mo swims away. Baha finds one of Big Mo’s teeth embedded in his ship and while it is not the big prize of Big Mo itself, he seems happy enough with it. He does not, however think Aspen is the best ship’s mate and decides to find someone that can actually pilot the boat and Aspen seems okay with that. This was clearly not the deepest or most complex story story but I think it succeeded in what it set out to do without the ton of unnecessary fluff the first arc was burdened with. We spent more time with Aspen and it felt like we spent less time with Baha than we did with Chance’s brother and he was both more useful to the story and a much more entertaining character to have around. The first arc felt like it might have been more ambitious than Turner’s writing ability, at the time could accomplish. This one felt like a bite-sized snack. I think a better approach would’ve been to do several two to three part stories like this to introduce characters and the world to slowly build up to the big emotional blockbuster arc Turner wanted in the first arc. Hopefully the next three-part arc carries a similar focus. |
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| Post 45 • IP flag post | ||
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| Issue 10: I have to admit I've never been to Seaworld. Is it really open to the water? I guess that would make sense in some ways and seem like a bad idea in others. It's a little weird that Aspen thinks of herself as an alien. I guess it feels better than mermaid, since she obviously isn't like a mermaid, but she also isn't from another planet. Right? Do we think the water people came from another planet? Given that I didn't like much of the supporting cast in the first 9 issues, I'm glad that they seem to be turning things over now. Hopefully Aspen's new friends will be less annoying and have better planning abilities. Maybe it's conditioning from all the superhero books, but I feel like the wetsuit makes things less cheesecake-y. The story could take a turn, of course, but it does have a Moby Dick feel to it. I appreciate them using the TV to put a lampshade on it. Quote: Originally Posted by dielinfinite I'm purposefully writing my posts before reading yours so that I'm not influenced (or spoilered), but it would sure save me time to just say "agreed". |
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| Post 46 • IP flag post | ||
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| Issue 11: I should have complained about the lettering last issue, apparently, because I did not think the ship's name was the Spelunker. I had to go back and see if they messed up and changed it. Sticking with the Moby theme, the captain of the ship says to call him Baha, which is Ahab backward. After Baha gives Aspen all the stuff for protection, I thought we were heading for some video game-level ladies' "armor" (or, basically what we saw in the first arc from the sea people). I'm glad Aspen still had her clothes on. They're definitely playing this story for laughs though. It was kind of a nice twist that Big Moe wasn't the monster was saw before, but in fact an even bigger monster fish (thing). I feel like the writing has picked up. It is all kind of silly, but a couple pages after I was wondering why Aspen was bothering with all the steampunk boat stuff that wasn't working, she breaks out her own powers. She could have done it earlier, of course, but at least I wasn't sitting here questioning things as much as in earlier issues. That said, I didn't think she would explode the monsters. That was a fun diversion. I wouldn't read this all the time, as it was more silly than honestly funny, but I would read it more often than the earlier run. |
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| Post 47 • IP flag post | ||
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| Issue 12: We're back to the status quo as Cannon and mean sea people return. So does Aspen's reporter former roommate. But now we're in NYC and we get a crossover with Witchblade and (going by the cover since she doesn't appear in the issue) Tomb Raider. I never read Witchblade or Tomb Raider, although I saw a couple of the TR movies, so I don't have a lot of expectations there. The witchblade does look kind of like the sea people's technology, so I'm guessing there will be some connection there (or at least speculation of one). Edit: apparently my lack of Lara Croft knowledge extends to not recognizing her. She was the woman on Cannon's boat, so she did appear briefly. Not too much else to say about this one. Hopefully Turner can thread the needle between the previous two issues and the first nine. |
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| Post 48 • IP flag post | ||
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| Issue 13: We get the story of how the new group of sea people captured Aspen and Sara interspersed with clips of Lara sneaking into the bad guy's base to try and find them along with Cannon. Whatever the bad guys were doing to Cannon to revive Taras, it doesn't work but it leaves Cannon disfigured. Also, the sea people can control ice, either directly or because it's made of water. Lara has to leave Cannon but helps lead Sara and Aspen out of the base for the time being. I don't have much to say about this one either. It's moving through the plot. Interspersing the two stories was probably more effective than doing one and then the other, so that's a fair move. We also haven't been bogged down in side characters or plots, so that's an improvement from the first arc. I wouldn't say it's as fun as the second 'arc' though either. And I guess we wrap it all up next issue. |
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| Post 49 • IP flag post | ||
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| Issue 14: It feels a little odd, knowing this was the last issue, to not have it be some kind of bigger finale or something that meditates on the main character. Sara, Aspen, and Lara save Cannon, the ice/sea people blow up, the end. It feels anticlimactic, I guess. It was a fine story though. If Turner had tightened up the first nine issues into, say, 6, and then these were issues 7 through 9, that would have made a fine series. Aspen learns about who she truly is and then starts getting pulled into random adventures. You'd want to build in some actual characterization and whatnot, but you could do worse. Bill O'Neil, who I don't recognize by name but looks to have a lot of credits, has been listed as co-writer since issue 9. I wonder how much of that was Turner's illness and how much was Top Cow/editorial maybe trying to right the ship. Things certainly straightened out in those later issues compared to the first group. |
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| So issue 12, and I’m assuming this entire arc, is almost a completely different read in my copy. In my book, published by Aspen, they have removed Lara Croft and Sara Pezzini entirely (likely so they wouldn’t have to pay royalties). This results in tons of changes and entire pages being altered or removed. This version goes straight from Hawke being captured to Aspen and her roommate arriving in New York. So you don’t see her accident instead you’re just seeing her arrive in New York on crutches. Where in the original issue they are interrupted by Sara Pezinni, in this version Aspen just says she’s grabbing some air to clear her head and leaves. The page where she meets with Sara is edited so that Aspen is thinking to herself near some trees or something  She makes her way to the docks, apparently having been informed by her roommate that Hawke’s ship was found empty in the harbor, though it doesn’t say how she got that information. After Aspen is ambushed at the dock and is punched into the nightclub action cuts straight to the nightclub. Immediately after the hit squad bursts in Aspen is knocked out with darts and the issue ends on the same pin-up shot. So, the issue is brief and I think the edits do a decent job of keeping things on track. It has the added benefit of focusing the story even more on Aspen, which was one of my biggest complaints about the first arc. I think the creative team realized Turner’s weaknesses in writing because both this arc and the one before had additional writers aside from Turner and I think the added experience has helped. Even in the original issues where Aspen is sharing the stage with Sara she still manages to be involved in and drive the story far more than she seemed to in that first arc. I also think the roommate was better used in this issue as we see her interacting with Aspen instead of having Aspen’s story stop entirely so we can spend pages with the supporting cast. |
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| Wow, issue 13 got seriously cut down. Basically we get the pages with Vana speaking to Hawke right up to when Aspen wakes up shackled and looks out to the snowy cavern. After that the book cuts out almost 8 pages worth. Things are re-ordered slightly with Vana asking her guards to bring Aspen in before we get a glimpse of the emaciated Hawke. We obviously lose all of Lara’s attack on Vana and fo straight back to Aspen in her confinement device. She mentions that it blocks most of her powers but she concentrates and is able to condense the water enough to break her shackles. She’s then sneaking through some snowy tunnels alone until she gets to the surface and we get that beauty shot of the frozen bay. We don’t see the new villains using their ice powers or any real backstory to them aside from knowing that Hawke killed Vana’s son in the first arc and now she wants revenge. I don’t think it’s really fair to judge this as a standalone issue because this is really an entirely different story than what was told in the original issues (which I’m not reading, just kind of skimming scans online to see what is different). This certainly wouldn’t work as a standalone issue but I think in this edited version this would be more like the middle of a simple two-issue rescue story. |
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| I counted something like 8 pages removed entirely with a lot of editing done in most of the rest. Vana realizes that part of Taras survived in Hawke, cut to Aspen sneaking around in the snow, finding Hawke’s weapon stash. Some more sneaking until she is spotted by the flying patrol. She shoots it down then turns another guy into a skeleton. Vana is shown disassembling and reassembling Taras and Hawke. She attacks Aspen with her ice powers, which Aspen turns to harmless water. Aspen fires back but Vana catches the projectile. It looks like we have some new art, a close up of Vana holding the orb while Aspen frees Hawke, then jumps on Vana to beat on her. Vana begins to freeze Aspen but Aspen breaks of an icicle and stabs her with it. The arrangement of the frames puts a lot more emphasis on the stabbing  Aspen sees Hawke freed from the machine when Vana tries to blast her but Aspen reflects it into Taras, killing him. Vana realizes what she’s done and in her grief is overcome by her own ice powers. The next two pages were heavily edited with tiny frames in the original blown up to half page size as Hawke and Aspen leap from the frozen base (later brushed aside as what must have been a record-setting dive, despite no water visible beneath their jump). Back in the boat Hawke apologizes for dragging Aspen into the adventure as he looks into the mirror and sees Taras staring back. This version definitely feels smaller in scale than original and feels less like an action blockbuster than the original version since it breaks out into action scenes less often and they end much quicker. This is very much Aspen’s story though as she’s the driving force of the action, which helps make up for the lack of a significant character arc. This isn’t really a character study as it is a short adventure. Overall, I enjoyed this arc, even in it’s edited form. I think the shorter length combined with a more straightforward storytelling objective means it was able to meet those objectives rather than crumbling under the weight of its grand ambition. It’s not a masterpiece but it’s a fun, digestible adventure that I wouldn’t mind reading more of. The first arc started off well but I think Turner got distracted with too many “wouldn’t it be cool ifs”, especially in the middle that it seemed to forget about its main character. The second two arcs may not have been filled with grand revelations but they were at least Aspen’s story and she’s fun to be around when she gets the opportunity to do something |
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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Quote:Originally Posted by dielinfinite Quote: Originally Posted by dielinfinite Wow, that's crazy. I was reading about Turner to get some of the timing of things, and obviously there was some issue around him leaving Image and taking Fathom with him. I wonder if Top Cow was jerks about the Witchblade/Tomb Raider rights after that, or if they didn't bother to ask, or what the story was. Quote: Originally Posted by dielinfinite Re: the timing I was checking on, I was curious if they added a co-writer to smooth things out or if it was because Turner was sick. Wikipedia says that Turner was diagnosed in March 2000, so maybe that explains some of the slowdown between these last issues, but he was still doing the penciling. So maybe it was mostly the former, maybe it was some of both. |
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Quote:Originally Posted by xkonk I’m pretty sure it’s just a rights thing. It happens all the time in comics. Like how Spawn collections almost always omit issue 10 because it features a crossover with Cerberus or the recent What If omnibus that omits the Fu Manchu issue. Lara Croft is especially troublesome since she isn’t even a Top Cow character. As a video game character she was licensed to Top Cow who worked her into their universe but I think Dark Horse has the license now. The omissions also explain why the series is only 13 issues on comixology since they indeed just turned it into a 2 part arc shortening the series by one issue |
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