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stalwart's review
2.0
i Wanted to like this book. I've read good stories about all of these characters. This was not one of them. The concepts are okay, but the execution leaves much to be desired on the level of basic storytelling.
Why are these characters in this story? I'm not quite sure. It's not made clear. For instance, What history does Emma Frost or Monica Rambeau share with Frankie Raye? I don't know and this series certainly didn't fill me in. There is a lot of commentary on the Frankie Raye becomes Nova stories that were in Fantastic Four about thirty years ago. And there's no exposition about any of it. No flashbacks. No reminders. No clarity.
[SPOILERS, such as they are]
There's also very little clarity about what is actually happening in the story. At one point Emma and Monica work together to read the last thoughts of a corpse. I have no idea how telepathy and being able to turn into anything on the electromagnetic spectrum combine to make that possible. And the comic doesn't take the trouble to tell me.
There is so much unexplained. What did Nova do to the roommate? Why did she kidnap Valeria? Why did Sue think Nova could only be approached by women?
[END SPOILERS]
The positive side is the dialogue. The large cast maintains fairly distinctive voices throughout. And the banter is lively and fun. The internal monologue is convincing and evocative. It's just not informative.
The art was rather uneven, with some slight shifting of art teams across the five issues. The artist has a rather expressionistic style (for superhero art), whihc is good at getting across emotional states, but less so with actually conveying what's going on. I like wordless sections of comics, but I often found myself needing to analyzie panel-by-panel what was being depicted. And occasionally being unable to. Considering the lack of clarity in the storytelling, this could have been a script issue.
Overall, this was disappointing. I wanted it to be so much better than it was. These characters deserved more.
Why are these characters in this story? I'm not quite sure. It's not made clear. For instance, What history does Emma Frost or Monica Rambeau share with Frankie Raye? I don't know and this series certainly didn't fill me in. There is a lot of commentary on the Frankie Raye becomes Nova stories that were in Fantastic Four about thirty years ago. And there's no exposition about any of it. No flashbacks. No reminders. No clarity.
[SPOILERS, such as they are]
There's also very little clarity about what is actually happening in the story. At one point Emma and Monica work together to read the last thoughts of a corpse. I have no idea how telepathy and being able to turn into anything on the electromagnetic spectrum combine to make that possible. And the comic doesn't take the trouble to tell me.
There is so much unexplained. What did Nova do to the roommate? Why did she kidnap Valeria? Why did Sue think Nova could only be approached by women?
[END SPOILERS]
The positive side is the dialogue. The large cast maintains fairly distinctive voices throughout. And the banter is lively and fun. The internal monologue is convincing and evocative. It's just not informative.
The art was rather uneven, with some slight shifting of art teams across the five issues. The artist has a rather expressionistic style (for superhero art), whihc is good at getting across emotional states, but less so with actually conveying what's going on. I like wordless sections of comics, but I often found myself needing to analyzie panel-by-panel what was being depicted. And occasionally being unable to. Considering the lack of clarity in the storytelling, this could have been a script issue.
Overall, this was disappointing. I wanted it to be so much better than it was. These characters deserved more.
jamberg's review
4.0
Wow! Quite a surprise. It made me want to learn more about the characters involved. I was unfamiliar with one of the central characters, which may have been to my advantage.
This is one of those quirky superhero comics, embellished by indie flavored art. The banter among the women is fun and the different tones are well handled.
This is one of those quirky superhero comics, embellished by indie flavored art. The banter among the women is fun and the different tones are well handled.
katytron's review
3.0
I read this because of the all lady lineup but the Nova/Frankie story was a bit confusing for a Marvel noob such as myself. Great to see Emma so well written.
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