You will never convince me that Peter Milligan doesn’t see
this book as a sad joke. There are far, far too many instances of laughable
dialogue in these pages. Let me give you some of the finer quotes.
“Gnnng… Gnnnn…”
“Gnngn! Kkilll…Yoouu…”
“Gannng…Gnnnn…Gnnnn”
I’m skipping over all the “Aarghs” and “Aagh’s”. But between
them, they account for about 20% of the story. Plus, let’s be real, this is a
story about a bunch of space monsters that are CONSTANTLY PUKING UP NAPALM
BLOOD. And the lead? The closest thing we’ve got to a point of view character?
His name is Rankorr! It’s not even spelled correctly!
There are a few moments when I almost made myself care, when
the new 52/bad versions of good characters show up in the Stormwatch crossover.
Seeing somewhat interesting characters fighting the Red Lanterns at least gives
me someone to cheer for. Am I supposed to prefer Atrocitus over Abysmus? I can’t
even read their names without giggling. Don’t worry, their angst-ridden
dialogue is full of purple prose, exposition, and lots of vomit. I mean that
literally, as a Red Lantern, about 50% of Atrocitus’ dialogue is positioned
over a spume of red puke.
The art is acceptable, but is lacking backgrounds in
almost every scene. Every character is disgusting, with bones and spikes poking
out of flesh. Some of the panels look a bit… computery? Miguel Sepulveda's style is way too "house New 52" for me.
I suppose, in the end, there was sort of a point to the
story in this collection. But man, it sure takes a long time to get there. The
pacing had driven out the last of my limited interest about halfway through
this EVIL comic.