Well, I promised to spice up the format, and I'd like to think I've done just that with this NEW STYLE review. The basic concepts are simple:
- This blog is called FLIP THE PAGE.
- People in comic shops often just FLIP THROUGH comics before deciding to buy them.
- As such a comic should have a certain amount of pages that people would look at whilst flipping through.
- Pages that make you stop and go "OH THAT'S AWESOME I'M BUYING THIS!"
- As such this review finds how many pages there are that do such a thing and scores the comic accordingly.
- Oh and like all other review things out there I check out the art and writing.
So with that in mind let's delve into New Mutants #3 by Zeb Wells and Diogenes Neves BY HITTING THE BLOODY JUMP!
To clear off the first and most important point to a comic flipper (AHAHAHAHA OH THE URL FINALLY FITS!) the cover looks pretty shit compared to the content, which immediately marks down the comic a fair bit. I know it's ultimately unimportant critically but we're not being critical in a normal way, we're being FLIPPIN' CRITICAL!
... I'm ashamed. MOVIN' ON!
Before I jump into the actual flippin' aspect I best quickly rush off the writing and art aspects. The writing is... Well I've never even HEARD of Zeb Wells before, so to say this is some of the best X-Writing I've ever read is to shock myself and... no-one else (i use ellipses too much). It's a solid package and the writer understands all his characters, with Legion being at perhaps the best I've ever read him/them. The art is stunning with Neves pulling some great moments, all with the perfect degree of motion. No-one is ever drawn inaccurately or fucked up somehow which for an X-book is pretty amazing. This is all enhanced by some great colour and ink-work by John Rauch (colour), Cam Smith and Norman Lee (inks) respectively that bring the comic to a ridiculous amount of life. If i were just scoring this on the writing and art it might be able to compete with Detective Comics 854... But I'm not. No this is all going to come down to those delicious flipping moments, which we're on to NOW!
1. First Double Page Spread: Cannonball and Sunspot double-teaming Legion. HARD!
After just TWO pages of comic we get a massive image of one of my favourite mutants (slight bias there but it doesn't affect how cool this is) launching Sunspot into Legion. It's impacting and eye-grabbing and contains a great amount of detail, from all the debris to the way Legion's mouth goes out at an angle with the blood pouring out from the hit. Awesome and that's all it need to officially be a flippin' moment
2. SAM YOU #$%@! DON'T YOU DO THIS!
Another page and a half and I had to stop again. Sam refusing to let Dani out of the jail cell is a moment that I would have flipped past (though seen the emotional importance and maturity of Sam on a proper read through) if it weren't for how amazing and entrancing these expressions are. The guilt on Sam's face (oh yeah, Sam is Cannonball and LEADER of the New Mutants to those who don't know. That's important) as he has to go against his heart and do his job right is so human I'd swear this wasn't a comic... Except for all these speech bubbles, pencils, inks and colouring... Shut up I'm making a point here. This followed by the panicked anger of Dani Moonstar (de-powered mutant and member of New Mutants extraordinare) makes for one of the highlights of the book. This combined with the flippability makes it another great flippin' moment.
3. Nobody... LOVES ME!
... Didn't even make it another page. This comic is liquid flippage. Legion shows off another of his personalities, in this case a really fat woman with super strength and depression. SERIOUSLY. So Legion hulks out saying the most brilliantly EMO line since One More Day (TAKE THAT WEB-HEADS!). The moment is hilarious AND eye-catching with more brilliant shading and pencilling. If Red Hulk looked this cool maybe I'd stop calling Jeph Loeb a cunt all day! For that thought alone, it's a flippin' moment!
4. Me so sorry.
Made it five pages this time. Thank God I thought this was going to take forever. Not to downplay anything before it, we're just talking what sticks out to a comic flipper. After some conversation on this page with... What I think is an alien personality.. Sam gets told that the personality is being made to kill Dani Moonstar from a distance away. Shocked, Sam asks what his power is. The only answer we get (and in a panel that sticks out so much to be a flippin' moment all by itself) is just: "Me So Sorry."
5. You Live? Good.
You know what makes a page stick out to me? FIRE! So it's after another page we get to the next flippin' moment, FIRE SAVING THE DAY! Magma melts the alien mind's weird floor creation in a refreshing blast of BRIGHT ORANGE EVERYWHERE and Magik proceeds to have an entertainingly dismissive and short conversation with Dani Moonstar. If it weren't for all the sudden bright colour this would be easy to miss, but thanks to Magik this is an AWESOME moment.
6. FACE PUNCH!
Another page, another hilarious moment. I'm pretty sure it wasn't SUPPOSED to be hilarious, but look at Sam's expression! You'd seriously believe her almost dying was just a lead up to some great comic relief!
7. Girl with a gun, a gun, a gun, a gun, a gun, a gun and some grenades.
Chicks with guns. What a long lasting image through the ages. This... Is almost Liefeldian, if it weren't for how cool it looked... Okay not as much cool as 'hey look lots of guns but no disproportionate muscles and pouches everywhere!'. It's all about being easy to please with images like this. Still to the average flipper this'll be a nice eye-catching moment.
8. Did I just kill a Gay Clown?
First up that's a SOUL SWORD, which is a pretty cool concept by itself. Secondly I can't think of a single person in the world who likes clowns. So for Magik to catch our attention by cutting straight through his hideous FUCKING CLOWN BELLY is a crowning moment in all comicdom. It helps that the page is beautiful and once again catches the reader's attention by changing up the colour (though technically the last page started this) and using some great kinetic movement. Any way you look at it this is a great flippin' moment and should be one of the final incentives to stop flipping and JUST BUY THE COMIC ALREADY!
9. Final Page: To tell you the truth, I wasn't paying attention.
I didn't even know who Magik was before flipping through this. I'm not kidding, I read the first two issues kinda just thinking 'oh some blonde lady' whenever she appeared. Through this issue she's stepped into her own, especially in this review format. So to round out her achievement of sticking in my mind we have the final page, with a ridiculously bad-ass line, a cool pose and the head of a lecherous Legion personality on the floor. Even if you didn't pay attention flipping through this comic this final page is guaranteed to make you go 'OH SHIT STUFF'S GOING DOWN NEXT ISSUE!'. This is awesome. This comic is awesome.
...
BUT WAIT!
Don't we need to point out some flaws where neccesary before rating the comic? Well... Let's see what we can find:
- The cover
- Too many adverts (isn't that true for all comics?)
- The recap is too big and off-putting
- New Mutants is a name I associate with awful Liefeld comics
That's about it. I'm admittedly biased when it comes to X-Comics (as my friends are quick to say) but I'm being completely honest when I say finding flaws in the actual content is far too hard. So with that on mind let's get to rating.
There are 24 pages of comic (2 being the double page spread, 1 being the cover, 1 being the recap) and 9 of those bring us flippin' moments. I usually expect around 5 of these per comic, so the 4 beyond that are what really matter. The art and writing are exceptional... So I think the verdict has to be:
FLIPPIN' BUY IT!
Isn't it nice to see a Marvel comic NOT in Dark Reign? Also next week expect ratings to be done with pretty pictures. This is still a work in progress.
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