Comics / Comic Reviews / DC Comics

Review: The Wild Storm #16

By Philip Schweier
August 15, 2018 - 08:25

Act One: Angela Spice uses her bio-integrated tech to “step” into the Internet. But her presence is sensed by (I don’t know the name of the character) who is neither IO or Skywatch. She has similar abilities, so this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Act Two (gesunheidt): John Lynch (the guy that looks like Sam Elliott) manages to locate an old colleague, Gloria, who also has supernatural powers. She also talks like a crossword wrapped in poetry. He’s there to warn her, but she seems capable of handling whatever might be thrown at her.

Act Three: Angela asks (another recurring character whose name I don’t know) to teach her about guns. Not just how to fire them, but how they work, because her integrated tech makes her a living, breathing 3D printer. She can manufacture objects out of thin air, but without understanding the components, she’s only making solid objects.

One thing that bothers me about many modern comics is the extended scenes with no dialogue, no captions, just a person doing stuff. In this case it’s John Lynch sneaking through Gloria’s house, gun drawn, expecting someone or something to attack him at any given moment. This went on too long, but I suppose it had to for Warren Ellis and Jon Davis-Hunt to get their point across. But it rarely works on the comic page; on screen, yes, but I don’t know many readers willing to shell out hard earned money for three and half pages of total silence.

Amazingly, this issue is not as confusing as previous installments. It’s basically three pairs of characters, all in conversation. Kinda hard to mess that up. How these five people (because one of them is used twice) come together in the overall scheme remains to be seen. But, you could say that about any given issue of this meandering series.

Rating: 6/10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12