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A review by iffer
Black Bolt, Vol. 1: Hard Time by Saladin Ahmed
4.0
I have an odd soft spot for the Inhumans, though I haven't read that many Inhumans comics, and even though they and their storylines can often be simultaneously hokey and take themselves too seriously. My soft spot extended to Black Bolt, and this storyline is sometimes hokey and sometimes takes itself too seriously, but I enjoyed it!
A large part of my positive experience with this collection was no doubt the artwork. It far exceeded my expectations. I was expecting somewhat bland, standard Marvel artwork, but Christian Ward's's style is so well-suited to cosmic titles. His linework is loose, and combined with a restrained cool color palette carefully punctuated with some warm neons, Ward captures the wonder of outer space, as well the as the confinement of a prison.
Saladin Ahmed's story may not break new ground, and it is obviously political in its close-the-prison storyline, as well as its hope and insistence that people can repent and reform *despite*, not because of*, incarceration and torture, mostly through forming human connection.
A large part of my positive experience with this collection was no doubt the artwork. It far exceeded my expectations. I was expecting somewhat bland, standard Marvel artwork, but Christian Ward's's style is so well-suited to cosmic titles. His linework is loose, and combined with a restrained cool color palette carefully punctuated with some warm neons, Ward captures the wonder of outer space, as well the as the confinement of a prison.
Saladin Ahmed's story may not break new ground, and it is obviously political in its close-the-prison storyline, as well as its hope and insistence that people can repent and reform *despite*, not because of*, incarceration and torture, mostly through forming human connection.