I'm disappointed in All Star Western. It might be introductory issue fatigue, it might be my reading of Northlanders Vol. 2 just prior, but Grey and Palmiotti made a mistake with the point of view character, Dr. Arkham, in this book. The second trade of Northlanders is a significant step down from the first, but one of the aspects Wood nailed was establishing the antagonist, Ragnar Ragnarsson, entirely through his clinical observations of his subject/rival. There's passion in Ragnar's letters to his King. Ragnar's motivation is clear, but not revealed directly through exposition. He's composed both in writing and stature, but when confronted with the savage killings of his rival, loses just a bit of that composure, and rather than taking up a splash page looking out upon the Irish vista with his chest out, he's hunched forward in a tiny panel on the bottom of the page under the cover of dead trees. He's alive. I don't get that in Arkham at all.
Maybe it's not introductory fatigue. I'm fine with inner monologues, observations, and the like when done well. Xanadu was great in JLD. She was appropriately eerie and pithy. Arkham, however, is so wooden, and interrupts at every opportunity. It slows the story down considerably. I'd say that All Star Western is exposition heavy, but that implies there was something to expose. Moritat was the bright spot in this issue at least. He's an effective, efficient storyteller. I'm confident that this issue could've been silent, and you would not miss out on anything important.
I'm still confident in this book. G&P are a solid team, the concept of the book has me intrigued, and I'm a sucker for secret societies. This is probably just a misstep.
ps yes i can and will compare every dc book to something brian wood wrote. birds of prey was okay but would be ten times better if zee hernandez was in it
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Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.