Andrew K. (kuligowskiandrewt) -
How did the Hellfire Club's White Queen become the woman she is today? As one might expect, there is quite the story behind the woman's rise in power and self-confidence.
As stated in my review of Volume 1, I found the first book, collecting issues 1 through 6, to be quite disappointing. Volume 2, giving us issues 7 through 12, builds and improves upon it. Same writer, different artist since the art wasn't the issue in the first book, this substitution was surprising and could have been disastrous. Fortunately, there was no loss (and as expected, no gain) in quality or in storytelling resulting from this change in personnel.
Writer Karl Bollers, however, has managed to up his game with this second set of 6 books. Emma has left home, has left her family, and is attempting to make her way in the world without benefit of her father's money and influence. Her mental powers help, but her lack of understanding and control over them results in their not helping all that much, at least not to start. As one would expect, her abilities increase over time but she is still a teen and cannot be expected to possess an adult's experiences. This is true in day-to-day life, and in the use of the power of a mutant psychic.
My favorite aspect of this book may seem a bit esoteric to some, as it is more of a technical issue than a plot point. The writer and artist manage to team up in this volume to successfully show, in a graphical medium, no less, a character actually using psychic powers. Think about this comics are a visual medium, while mental capacity is most certainly not. Early X-Men artist Werner Roth might have shown Professor X bowing his head and squinting, perhaps bringing his hands to his temples, while little lines radiated from his head. Pagualayan is more subtle; in some cases, the technique is simply the careful and prolific placement of captions around the character.
Perfect? No. An improvement over Volume 1? Definitely.
P.S. As with the first volume in this series, this collection of pre-published comics is not simply a reprint of the first/next X books in the series there is a theme to the comics reprinted here, and a clear conclusion to the story when we hit the end of the last comic in the collection.
RATING: 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 stars where necessary.
As stated in my review of Volume 1, I found the first book, collecting issues 1 through 6, to be quite disappointing. Volume 2, giving us issues 7 through 12, builds and improves upon it. Same writer, different artist since the art wasn't the issue in the first book, this substitution was surprising and could have been disastrous. Fortunately, there was no loss (and as expected, no gain) in quality or in storytelling resulting from this change in personnel.
Writer Karl Bollers, however, has managed to up his game with this second set of 6 books. Emma has left home, has left her family, and is attempting to make her way in the world without benefit of her father's money and influence. Her mental powers help, but her lack of understanding and control over them results in their not helping all that much, at least not to start. As one would expect, her abilities increase over time but she is still a teen and cannot be expected to possess an adult's experiences. This is true in day-to-day life, and in the use of the power of a mutant psychic.
My favorite aspect of this book may seem a bit esoteric to some, as it is more of a technical issue than a plot point. The writer and artist manage to team up in this volume to successfully show, in a graphical medium, no less, a character actually using psychic powers. Think about this comics are a visual medium, while mental capacity is most certainly not. Early X-Men artist Werner Roth might have shown Professor X bowing his head and squinting, perhaps bringing his hands to his temples, while little lines radiated from his head. Pagualayan is more subtle; in some cases, the technique is simply the careful and prolific placement of captions around the character.
Perfect? No. An improvement over Volume 1? Definitely.
P.S. As with the first volume in this series, this collection of pre-published comics is not simply a reprint of the first/next X books in the series there is a theme to the comics reprinted here, and a clear conclusion to the story when we hit the end of the last comic in the collection.
RATING: 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 stars where necessary.
