Review: House of Whispers #21
Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writers: Nalo Hopkinson and Dan Watters
Artist: “Domo” Stanton
Colors: Zac Atkinson
Letters: AndWorld Design
Reviewed by: Tony Farina
Summary
Trapped in Guinée, the Land of the Dead, Papa Midnite and Erzulie must join forces to return to their own realms…unfortunately, their mutual foe the trickster god Ananse is in the way, and he’s eager for a rematch!
Positives
Since page one of House of Whispers, Domo Stanton has been the hero. Here we are now in House of Whispers #21 and he is still the hero. The Dreaming is a crazy place and spending time in there could make one go mad and one could lose a grip on reality. That has not happened for Domo. In fact, each month, I see a growth in his art. It must be daunting at first to come into the Sandman Universe and play around in such a well loved sandbox. I think that Domo has made this corner of the Dreaming his own and we are all better off for it.
Negatives
For a book that has so much motion in it, everyone really seems stuck in place. Our hero is hardly even in this book anymore and when she is, she is being battered and beaten or held captive on her own ship. It is frustrating that 21 issues in, that is still happening. She has been on that boat before. Can we move on, please?
Constantine shows up to help out his old frenemy Papa Midnite. Papa has been in this series for a while now. They feel shoehorned in. I am not sure if the idea was that by having characters readers knew and liked or hated in the book, would make it more appealing, but is just feels like filler. I like what Nalo does with the, she is extremely talented as a writer, but it just is another issue with a book that has always been overstuffed to too much as it is.
Verdict
House of Whispers #21 is the penultimate issue of this series. Next month will be the culmination of two years of planning, plotting and magic. I am keen to see how Nalo pulls it all together. I feel like her vision for what this book was supposed to be never really came to light. More on that next month. For now, page through this and thank Domo Stanton for being so amazing.
