Ivan Brandon

I don't know why all the Final Crisis Aftermath books have verbs for subtitles, but I kind of like it. It would have been even better if they'd all used exclamation marks like Run!, though. Isn't Escape! a much better title than Escape?

In my review of Ink, I said it was my favorite FCA tale, but this one has supplanted it. This is the first of them that doesn't feel like the writer is trying to make something out of Grant Morrison's leftovers, that feels like its writer actually has his own show more story to tell. Ivan Brandon and Marco Rudy pick up some time after the end of Final Crisis, with its hints about Brother Eye and a Global Peace Agency. In Escape, Tom Tresser-- apparently a master of disguise called "Nemesis," but a new character to me-- wakes up in the Electric City, a sort of prison, a weird surreal prison whose wardens insist it's not a prison, and where his fellow inmates who know him refuse to talk to him. Many of the other prisoners seem to be characters who also worked for the government: Amanda Waller, Rick Flag, Blackhawk (I'm not sure which one-- Janos Prohaska?), Atomic Knight, Cameron Chase, the Spy Smasher.

The writing and the art are both deliberately disorienting, with Brandon providing little in the way of answers and Rudy embedding panels within panels to put the reader off from following the story. The characters don't know who to trust, they don't know who put them where they are or why, and imprisonment might not even be the purpose of their jailers. I was often confused by this story, but always intrigued, as the answers always felt just outside of my grasp. It reminded me-- quite deliberately, I suspect-- of The Prisoner, and that's almost always a good thing. The wheel with the options of DEATH, FREE, PEACE, VIOLENCE, ESCAPE, PANIC, RESET was a great surreal touch, and the seeming time travel elements were perfect icing on the cake of confusion.

I expected the end to be one of those endings that explains nothing, but to my surprise just enough explanations were provided to make me feel like there was a logic to this, and to intrigue me to read on. There was a purpose to everything that happened, one that stems from the events of Final Crisis and has repercussions for the future. I do want to know how the Buddy Blank and Brother Eye we see here relate to the ones from Countdown to Final Crisis and Final Crisis itself, though; that wasn't terribly clear.

Overall, I really enjoyed this. It was bold, it was different, and despite its obvious debts to both The Prisoner and Jack Kirby, I didn't feel like I'd ever encountered anything quite like it. I look forward to seeing what happens to Tom next, and unlike with most of these Final Crisis Aftermath tales, I actually can; Ivan Brandon apparently wrote a followup miniseries called Nemesis: The Impostors. Sadly, it's uncollected, so I'll have to find the floppies somewhere.

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Where Nothlanders is all abotu characters, plot, and historical themes, this Viking graphic novel relies almost entirely on the quality of the artwork for its success. Each page is lushly saturated with colour (both the reds of battle and the greens of the scenery are good places to draw from), but the artists's style is painterly to the point of becoming difficult to track characters throughout the plot. It doesn't help that the story jumps around so much that you're never quite sure which show more characters are supposed to be the protagonists, much less the supporting characters. I would like to see more from the artist, but I would be happier to see him doing stand-alone covers or true artwork rather than attempting to confine himsdelf to the linearity of the graphic novel format. show less

This series lost the thread somewhere in the middle. The second half of this book tried really hard to bring it all back together - and honestly, I'd have preferred if we ditched the main character all together to focus on all the secondary characters who had actual motivations. The series worked best when it wasn't second-guessing itself, but we spent so much time wallowing in the main character's self pity that it infected the storytelling.

This book was so creative, so inventive. I loved show more the world-building. But the story deserved more time in the oven. It's half-cooked at best. show less

This one is actually 3.5 but for the gorgeous art I am marking it as 4.

Story is a little bit of a letdown. Let me explain - we are introduced into this alien galaxy where war is something that is fully commercialized, war parties fight under camera lenses and ever present commercials, soldiers get improved or lose their enhancements as combat takes place (once sponsors give up, soldier is left to his own devices). All of this happens under the auspices of control asteroid, mysterious star show more ship controlled by even more mysterious parties that see these direct-to-stream combat as a very useful way of controlling the population of the system and making sure everyone stays in their place.

Story is not bad, and if this went over multiple volumes it would make more sense. As it is, entire story line seems rushed and .... somehow incomplete. For example ending is very open ended - what actually happens is something left to the reader (although taking into account the dystopian atmosphere it is not so hard to imagine the final outcome).

So story is 2.7 points. I have a feeling they wanted to do more and then series was cut down.

What carries the entire book is gorgeous Esad Ribic's art. He manages to bring to life the entire universe, weird aliens, fractions participating in combat and finally the ever present commercials, news and (of course) censoring of the information when things go the other direction for the rulers-to-be.

Esad's work is straight 5 points.

Interesting book, a bit of disjointed story-line but gorgeous art.

Recommended to SF fans but be warned that story (as it is presented) might not be everyone's cup of tea.. show less