[Editor’s note: This review may contain spoilers.]
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Artists: Alisson Borges & Blond
Summary
Raven attempts to save her friends from the mysterious entity that is attacking San Francisco.
Positives
The cover by Annie Wu looks great. Wu is one of my favorite artists so I’m always excited to see work by her. It’s cool to see Raven in Wu’s style and I like the piece a lot.
The interior art, drawn by Alisson Borges and colored by Blond, looks great as well. There’s a nice tone that the art is able to establish. The book is slightly eerie and sullen while still being bright and colorful. Blond’s work always impresses me and this issue is no exception. I love Borges’ work as well. She conveys youth well and the characters are very expressive which is important to me. I would like to see an animated series or show from Borges.
I still love Raven’s narration. Marv Wolfman captures the snarky nature of teenagers well. There’s quite a bit of personality in the narration which helps it feel more natural and less like exposition.
Negatives
While I think Wu does a great job from a technical point of view, her cover has nothing to do with the issue itself. The cover implies something will be done in the high school especially with the tagline. But Raven never sets foot in the school in this issue. It’s a great cover; I just wish it was paired with a story that fit.
This story feels too padded out. Barely anything is accomplished in this issue. The entity erases some of Raven’s memory for a couple of pages only for her to get it right back and go back to fighting the entity like she was before the amnesia. It’s a completely pointless scene. We don’t get much more information about the entity than we got in the previous issue except that it might be caused by mysterious masked individuals. A lot of the issue is dull because of this.
Verdict
Overall, this is an okay issue. The art is fantastic throughout both in the character moments and in the action. Everything looks great. Raven is well characterized and the book does have personality that stands out among all of the DC books right now. However, I think this story is being dragged out too long to its detriment which results in a somewhat boring issue.
