 |
| WHERE MONSTERS DWELL No. 5, December 2015 |
Almost entirely devoted to an incredibly dull dialogue
between the Phantom Eagle and Clemmie Franklin-Cox, this concluding instalment
of “Where Monsters Dwell” proves to be a poignant reminder that “having a pint
with [“Marvel Worldwide”] editor Nick Lowe” may not have been the best motivation
for Garth Ennis to pen a mini-series. For whilst the Northern Irish-born
American’s “Secret Wars” five-issue mini-series has undoubtedly had its highpoints
with its giant dinosaurs, underwater leviathans, “diminutive cannibals” and
Amazonian goddesses. This particular twenty-page periodical doesn’t contain any
of them, and instead could arguably have avoided being printed at all, if its
previous edition had simply been lengthened by a couple of pages at most.
Indeed all the Eagle Award-winner has happen within this
comic book is for Karl Kaufmann to swiftly “repair his plane” using “an engine
and propeller [stolen] from the beautiful warrior women” of Battleworld and fly away. Something which is essentially inferred within
the final few panels of this title’s preceding publication and hardly seems to
warrant having an entire magazine dedicated to its telling.
Admittedly Ennis does use this opportunity to exceedingly
expand the backstory of Clementine by having the widow of Lord Bertie Cox explain
how her husband “fell off a boat and drowned” during “a cruise in the South
Seas” and her subsequent detention on suspicion of the rich man’s murder by “the captain
and crew”. But whilst some of this character development is mildly interesting,
the vast majority of the callous would-be killer’s lengthy discourse is
nauseating nonsense and even wincingly vulgar at times, such as when the “well-heeled”
woman describes her wedding night and ‘doing the necessary’.
Ultimately however this comic’s narrative disappoints
because the “English socialite” is portrayed as being so callous and
dislikeable that it is genuinely hard for the reader to actually care what
impelled her to be as equally disagreeable a “piece of work” as Kaufmann. As a
result by the time the flying ace’s passenger has decided not to shoot the “general
jerk” dead with her pistol, and instead allows him to depart into the sky unmolested,
its doubtful many readers will be even remotely interested in what is taking place...
 |
| Writer: Garth Ennis, Artist: Russ Braun and Color Artist: Dono Sanchez Almara |
I honestly expected better from this series and was all set to buy the TPB, but your honest opinion leads me to think to leave well alone. A shame, as I normally like Garth Ennis's work.
ReplyDeleteBryan, I'm really not sure what went wrong with this title, as the first two issues were superb, and even the next couple weren't too bad, despite my Victorian stance to its morality being deeply offended. But this final issue was dreadful imho, and I'd actually have preferred it if they'd left well enough alone and ended it with #4. However the artwork is tremendous so if you see this cheap I'd still recommend it. Just don't expect much from its drawn-out ending imho.
DeleteSimon, your opinions always matter to me. I do admire your honesty in your reviews and if you think this series ends on a stinker, that's good enough for me.
DeleteVery kind of you Bryan. If I ever come across the first two issues as spares then I'll be sure to send them your way :-)
Delete