Comics Fondle

I guess critics had some problems with The Last Enemy, but I really can’t imagine what. (As I wasn’t asked to participate in Heidi MacDonald’s year-end online comic personalities review, I didn’t say “other critics”). The Last Enemy is exactly what it ought to be, a sequel to the limited series, continuing, developing and resolving some of the leftovers, while also being somewhat stand-alone.

Ennis has a beauty of a framing method here–Wormwood and a couple of his lackeys are doing an audio commentary on one of their shows–and The Last Enemy plays a lot for laughs. It’s also got a lot of action and some of the same smart humor (though nowhere near as much) as the limited series. The serious, human stuff, which set The Chronicles of Wormwood a little bit apart from Ennis’s other work, is also here… but less so. I mean, the situation still exists, but since Ennis is assuming the reader has read the previous work, he isn’t introducing it anymore.

I am a little worried about the next one shot or limited series, since Ennis bids farewell to one of Wormwood’s more spectacular characters. Then again, as I was rereading the ending, I realized as much as I love Wormwood, Ennis loves it more and he probably isn’t going to screw it up.

Rob Steen’s art does a reasonable job–especially in close-up–of mimicking Jacen Burrows and the one shot has that shiny Avatar color, so it definitely feels like Wormwood.

In short–as usual–the more sentimental, emotional (with pop culture references) Ennis impresses.

A

Technorati Tags: Avatar Press, Chronicles of Wormwood, Comic Book, Garth Ennis, Review, Rob Steen

Recommend on Mahalo