Radiant Comics

I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got seven new comics. This week I bought three Marvel and three DC comics that I don’t buy regularly. Just to try out some new things:

Sigil – 3

Powerman and Iron Fist – 4

Secret Warriors – 26

FF – 3

Teen Titans – 94

Batman: Gates of Gotham – 1

Flashpoint – 1

And now for a review of something I’ve read recently.

“The Sword: The Complete Collection” by The Luna Brothers

I waited until this whole series was over and bought the oversized hardcover collection of it. That’s because I liked the Luna brothers’ previous series “Girls” but can’t afford to buy individual issues month by month and then also buy a collection of them. Since I’m a sucker for oversized hardcover (and in this case slip-covered) collections I decided to wait until this volume came out last December. Since I likes “Girls” I figured there was a good chance I’d like “The Sword” too. I was right.

“The Sword” is pretty much a straight up vengeance quest. There are twists and turns along the way to make things interesting but “Vengeance quest” sums things up nicely. It takes place in the same world we live in. No super heroes or magical powers exist until we are alerted to the fact that three super powered beings exist and they killed a whole family trying to get a magical sword. Except they to killed the whole family but they miseds the daughter. She finds the sword and discovers it gives the holder super powers. Then she’s off to kill the three people who killed her family. That’s issue one and you’ve got twenty three more to go.

The Luna brothers did an excellent job with this series. It starts quickly and simply but more layers are added to the story as time passes. Some issues fly by quickly as there is a lot of fighting and others more slowly as the characters and their stories reveal themselves to the reader. Just when I thought I had the full flavor of the stew another ingredient would be discovered. The vengeance quest aspect was still the main motivator but vengeance isn’t always a simple thing.

I’ve never been a huge fan of the “No line weight” style of art that the Luna brothers use but it doesn’t spoil anything for me. Their storytelling is excellent and that makes up for any distaste I might have for the way the art is finished. I’d urge anyone else who has a similar distaste for the “No line weight” style of art to give an issue or two of the Luna brothers’ work a read because it really is good.

Despite the fact that there are twenty four issues in this collection, and that seems like a lot, I read this book purposefully slower than usual. As I wrote before some of the issues fly by quickly. Since I was enjoying them and knew it would be a long time before I read any other new Luna brothers work I wanted them to last. That and it was written with month to month cliff hangers. A lot of time when I read comics written like that, even in collected form, I like to pause for a little while after a cliff hanger. I find I like that in a reading experience.

I’d also like to point out how much I liked the ending. Not that I’ll tell you what it is but endings are hard to write and often the worst part of any given story. A lot of writers seem to not care or think about about endings and a good story can fizzle out and be ruined as it finishes. Not here. I thought the ending of this book was solid and satisfying.

So if you’re looking for a fun and well done adventure/vengeance quest story check out “The Sword”. It’s good stuff.