The Ravagers #11

The Ravagers #11 Review

Overview:

The team has to deal with Rose and Warblade, Deathstroke and Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man!

The Good:

The story is intense in the penultimate issue of this series. The team spends most of the time fighting Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, who is given no backstory other than “mad scientist with too much time on his hands” and that is probably for the better, his is a little lame but still effective for getting the team to fight together. Rose and Warblade show up and start trying to kick ass like they usually do but with everything going on, a wrench is thrown into the works. Deathstroke is the badass assassin that we all know he is as he continues his flaming dagger filled crusade against the team. It is effective, even if it seems like overkill but it still works. The last page was a bit of a mind%$#@; it brought up some questions that hopefully can be answered in the last issue.

Tony Bedard and Michael Alan Nelson write the issue and it is a good one, there is some nice dialogue and cool action. The pacing is a little fast but it helps convey the franticness of what is happening.

Vicente Cifuentes and J.P. Mayer share the art credit. I personally preferred Cifuentes’ a little more but they are both good. It helps that they are tied together by Tony Avina’s colors.

The Bad:

***Spoiler Alert***

Warblade dies. I understand that the series is coming to an end but come on; he deserved a bit more than an off-panel decapitation. He was actually an interesting villain and made a great team with Rose.

***End Spoilers***

The cutaway from Deathstroke’s attack on the team, Thunder in particular, kind of sucked. It creates some suspense but a little hint would have been nice. It is understandable that Deathstroke should not have a hard time dealing with the team or anything but he is mowing them down and it is a little ridiculous.

The pacing is probably the biggest problem in the issue, it is fast, very fast, and sometimes it creates problems. I understand that things need to happen as this is the second to last issue but taking it a little bit slower would have been nice. If less time was spent fighting Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man and more spent on explaining Deathstroke’s dagger or what happened between Rose and Fairchild, it would have been better.

Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man… really?

Verdict:

Overall it was a good issue that was fast paced and tried to close plot holes while keeping the last one relevant; but it came at a price, the pacing was a bit too fast and opened a few plot holes. However, solid dialogue and good art helped tie it down.

4 (3.5) out of 5

The lack of half stars is a little annoying….