[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Justin Jordan
Artists: Ibrahim Moustafa, Jordan Boyd
Summary
Things are starting to come together as this series races further towards its conclusion. Kira and Abel continue to fight with Cain as the fate of New York hangs in the balance. The violence is kicked up yet another notch as the three spill blood. The flashbacks this issue offer the most information of the series. Yet again things are not what they first seemed. No one is innocent in this series.
Positives
Justin Jordan manages to take an issue to add as much backstory as possible, and yet he manages to do this without disrupting the frenetic pace the series has established. The almost nonstop twists and turns that the flashbacks are taking keep the reader guessing. This manages to have the same effect on pacing as the fight scenes.
The Program is further developed and things are starting to make a little bit more sense. So far this has been a series that requires a lot of trust. The reader is given very little information to go on but the action has done a superb job of keeping readers invested. It’s this issue where the trust pays off and the reader is given more information than they can comprehend.
Without going too far into spoilers, Kira’s place in the story makes more sense than it did as this issue develops the entire Savage Things mythos. The idea of more than one Program, while a little obvious, still manages to satisfy in the way it is revealed. Rather than throw a clear twist at the reader, Jordan sprinkles hints throughout the series that culminate in this issue’s exposition.
One final positive, Ibrahim Moustafa’s art is as fantastic as always, but one thing that stood out to me this month is his use of motion lines. Since it’s the Kirby Centennial, I have his style in my head and couldn’t help but notice the way Moustafa depicts speed. If a hand is throwing a punch then Moustafa has the arm made of motion lines. This is a good way of showing just how fast the fights are while also maintaining a contemporary look.
Negatives
As I said, this issue dedicates a lot of its time to exposition. Within the context of the issue it’s still entertaining, but I just wish a lot of what was here had been spread out between the previous six issues. Twists work when they’re surprising, but it requires a very patient reader to go with a series, especially for seven issues, before getting any real sense of what’s going on.
The reason Savage Things has worked has been its action and since most of the plot has been saved for issue seven, most of the action has been reserved for issues one to six. Meaning this issue has a noticeable drop in action. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still really good, it just breaks the tone the series has developed so far.
Likewise the reveal about Kira and the subsequent Tarantino style ‘everyone shoots at each other’ scenes come across mildly rushed. With seven issues there was time to build to this rather than just have constant action sequences. Unless of course, Justin Jordan is going for a Tarantino style story, in which case it’s working quite well. Just replace the famous Tarantino dialogue with break neck pace action.
Verdict
Overall this was a good issue that manages to slow the pace of the series a little. The reader can get their breath back as they learn some important parts of the backstory before the big finale.
