Vengefully Red
THE GOOD
Of course I have to praise the cover art and the "Previously in Vengeance" first page, but this book was so much more than those two items. I would rank it as good as the last issue in this mini-series. Not perfect, but close.
The battle in the "Sixth Dimension" is great. There was a good amount of humor from the ghost like people left behind, a wonderfully drawn villain (Tiboro), beautiful artwork, and pretty decent dialog. As a side note, Tiboro did make a one-panel appearance in the first issue of this series. Near the end, it was one of the reasons the first issue was so confusing...
It would appear that the entire Red Skull Nazi thing was to show how horrible people are. I haven't decided whether it is part of the story to provide a reason for the Black Knight and Ultimate Nullifier to hook up, or the other way around. At the very least it did justify the quote on the front of this issue, "Good versus evil... tough to tell the difference, if you ask me." Which was said to the Ultimate Nullifier ("good" team) by the Black Knight ("evil" team)... again, was this to drive the point home about the extremely blurred line between "good" and "evil". If so, bravo. If not, nice break.
I haven't spoken much about the kid "In-Betweener", because up to this point, he really didn't do much for the story for me. At least in this issue, he uses some of his abilities to aid in the retrieval of Miss America from the "Sixth Dimension". It was nice to see the plot device they used for the assist. She-Hulk and Hellstorm were a perfect fit for the rescue mission.
THE BAD
The TEXTING!! Argh!! Really? What was the point of the first bit from Miss America? "I've got a signal here, but there's no way." There are a few things wrong with this:
- IF she was really texting, she wouldn't use full sentences and/or grammar.
- Why would she have signal for her phone in the "Sixth Dimension"?
- Who texts to everyone?
- Her handle is wrong... again instead of MsA, she is USA.
- Texting in comics is fairly inappropriate - in this case, yes, maybe it make sense to check the phone after being whisked away to a different world, but seriously?
Ok, enough on that rant, certainly not enough to kill the book for me, but it has just been getting worse!
I do have to mention (again) that I dislike Miss America's attitude and forced ethnicity. Don't get me wrong, I like the fact that she is a strong Latina super-heroine, she is just written "wrong" in my opinion - too much of a chip on her shoulder.
THE VERDICT
Recommended. Like the last three books in this mini-series, this is another solid read. We finally get the reason for all the Red Skull Nazi flashbacks (I guess they had to wait until he was on the cover) - and though underwhelming, at least it is no longer a mystery. The battle scenes in the "Sixth Dimension" were likely the best in the series. I am looking forward to the last book, not only to wrap this crazy story up, but to finally see where they were going with all this from the start to finish.