Review: THE LAST GOD #5
[Editor’s note: This review may contain spoilers.]
Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Artist: Riccardo Federici
Colorist: Sunny Gho, Arif Prianto & Matt Lopes
Cover art: Kai Carpenter
Reviewed by: Jose Zuazua
Summary
Beyond the edge of creation lies the Black Stair. And beyond it, amidst the void, he waits. Mol Uhltep, The Last God. This is the tale of those who claimed to slay him, and the world they doomed with their lies.
Positives
Fans of this series will probably enjoy this issues dense text, further expanding the story arc. We learn a bit more about Cyanthe’s origins, and how her relationship with Tyr and Veikko began.
Negatives
Before I start this, I just need to say that I’m not exactly the target audience for “Fantasy” books. However, it’s still my job to be objective, and I found it hard to be when the fundamentals of story-telling weren’t being followed. Dialogue is heavy on exposition, having the characters tell the story to each other. That’s a big no-no. Characters talk as if each other is a first time reader to a meta-ongoing series. There’s even a page at the beginning of the book summarizing the story up to that point. This page had paragraphs of information, names, double-crosses, magic realms, etc., that I found difficult to remember before even starting the book!
And there’s even another page of text at the end of the book too, along with a map.
I’m not an artist, but I know what kind of art I enjoy. The art here attempts to be more on the realistic side, and I guess that’s common for fantasy books, but I am not a fan. And the coloring is muddy, except when we get to these panoramic splash pages that are full of more explanations, either by dialogue or through captions.
Verdict
Again, I’m not a fan of fantasy but that doesn’t mean a book, no matter the genre, is immune to criticism. Characters should never have to explain the story to each other. Comics are a sequential art form, with the panels telling you a story visually. It’s one thing if characters are having a conversation, but that’s when they share feelings or emotions, not to tell each other what is happening in front of them.
Look, I’m not knocking the fantasy genre, I’m knocking how the story is being told. If you like a real tome of a story that’s cool, but you deserve to see it presented better than this.
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