THE BASICS
Ratchet & Clank are back on their home planet, Veldin. Only now, without a sun to draw heat from, it's slowly turning into a frozen wasteland. Meanwhile, Talwyn is trapped aboard Artemis Zogg's starship.
MY COMPLIMENTS TO THE CHEF
- This issue is full of predictability. I know that doesn't sound like a compliment, but the execution is so well done that I (almost) didn't mind at all. The action is fun and exciting, the dialogue walks the fine line between funny and dramatic gracefully, and the book is full of charm. When your capable of taking cliched scenes and make them entertaining and enjoyable despite their nature, that's impressive.
- There's a great scene between Talwyn and Artemis early in the issue, with both of them getting a great moment in. When Talwyn's father is verbally attacked by Zogg, Talwyn defends his honor in a heartwarming way that would potentially have given her the last word, only to have Zogg flip it at the last moment in a delightfully evil way. It's great stuff and my favorite part of the comic.
FEEL THE STING OF MY DISCONTENT!
- Despite the excellent execution, predictability is still predictability. I have a pretty good feeling I know how issue 6 is going to start now, which takes away a bit of the excitement I would have otherwise had for it. Hopefully I'm proven wrong.
- There are too many splash pages for my tastes. They look great and all, but they also take up a lot of space. 20 some odd pages isn't a whole lot for a reader, so three or four different full page (one even takes up two pages) panels in a comic is a good chunk of the book taken aside to show very little, comparatively.
WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE
The weakest entry in this series thus far, which by no means makes it bad. It's still better than a lot of what's put out today, but it's a little discouraging to see it dip in quality so close to the end. Hopefully the conclusion wraps things up nicely.