The Good
Sami Basri delivers another gorgeous issue. His pencils continue to blow me away and his ability to capture emotion, action and movement in each of his panels is incredible. Williamson definitely leans on Basri and uses his abilities to tell the story -- something evident in the various action scenes in this issue.
Williamson may not be crafting a story the way I want him to, but he's not writing a bad story. There is plenty of suspense in this issue (even before you get to that crazy last page) and that's, essentially, what will keep you reading the book. Every corner there is a new surprise mainly due to the recklessness of Voodoo's character. What will her next move be? What will she do next? She's unpredictable and that can sometimes be a double edged sword. It adds to the element of surprise that will surely keep readers interested, but it takes away from the story because it makes her a very inconsistent character.
The Bad
Okay, so let me get this straight. Voodoo (the clone) spends at least two pages showing remorse and feeling guilty for having to destroy the "failed" clones created by the Daemonites, ("I feel their grief. sadness...We are so like") but then she kills them all. Then when the Daemonites ask her "hey, do you want a job?" she -- without hesitation -- accepts? Really? After all of that? This character is becoming profusely difficult to understand, and sympathize with. But I am guessing maybe that's the point.
When Voodoo was first released there was a lot of controversy surrounding the character. She was both a stripper and an undercover agent. Also an alien. She spends an entire page in the first issue stripping. People filed complaints, and maybe the publisher listened. So the fix? Make the character we saw in the first issue a clone, and then turn her into a villain. It's harder to sympathize with a character that is initially introduced as a trollop/horrible/evil/murdereress who eventually reforms than it is to just make her a clone of a nicer/more reserved/innocent character. Now, it's not my job to tell DC what to publish, but I thought making the original Voodoo a clone, have her go on this crazy killing spree, and then after they show her depict some remorse, have her side with the guys who were trying to mess with her in the first place was kind of weak sauce. But that's just me. Basically, my issue with Voodoo is that as a character she feels inconsistent. The reader begins her series rallying for her, but by issue #7 they rally against her. That's a really big change in the direction of the character.
The Verdict
I really like it when a comic keeps me at the edge of my seat and keeps me guessing. Where the characterizations are strong and consistent and where a solid story is backed by fantastic art. Voodoo continues to have most of these bases covered. Sami Basri continues to deliver some truly phenomenal work, the comic does leave me guessing (mainly because Voodoo is such a tremendously loose canon) and the characters are unexpected. While I may not like the direction the book is moving in, I am certainly interested in seeing what will happen next.