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Smoke & Mirror 1: Time & Time Again
Book by Satterlee, Chuck
187 pages, Paperback
First published March 15, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 24, 2014
Considering this was a self-published work, it's really pretty well done. This is an origin story of two heroes, Smoke & Mirror, who are following in the footsteps of a pair of Golden Age heroes. It has all the tropes; origin story, wise mentor, rebellious teen, secret identities, uneven relationship between heroes, etc. But even though it's all been done before, it's done pretty well here. Apart from one rather tone-deaf secondary character (hero Luke Gregory's assistant), everything works really well. Smoke's powers are interesting, and I like that one villain actually manages to figure out how they work to their advantage. The majority of the collection is conversations and reminiscences - there are a few action sequences that work just fine, but they don't seem to be the focus.
The artwork and the coloring is very well done, although there is a very jarring transition on both for the final issue. The last two issues take the story on a darker journey, and it's interesting how they play out. All in all, a nice piece of work from a talent outside the system.
The artwork and the coloring is very well done, although there is a very jarring transition on both for the final issue. The last two issues take the story on a darker journey, and it's interesting how they play out. All in all, a nice piece of work from a talent outside the system.
May 3, 2017
This volume is for die-hard completists only.
Best parts: Dual stories of modern age hero and golden age mentor, with matching modern/1940s art for each. It starts "in medias res" and gives a few dashes of origin story only as they're needed for the plot, which eschews the world-building pitfall of many series beginnings. It's always cool to see self-published comics get to tell a full story.
Worst parts: The interesting art described above goes out the window in issues 5 (awkward figure drawing and jarringly overdone computerized coloring) and 6 (a Mike Mignola knockoff, which is fine stylistically but out of step with the rest of the series). In the same two issues the central conflict goes from {Spoilers ahead} "two unlikely allies team up," a classic superhero trope, to "maybe we shouldn't have fridged that character, so let's do unnecessary time travel and then decide to fridge TWO characters to reset the status quo." In other words, both artistically and narratively the series falls apart.
There is an awkward afterword that tries to explain the real-world circumstances that led to the artistic issues, but it's a limping apology and includes a misspelling of the word "two," which makes it hard to take seriously.
Best parts: Dual stories of modern age hero and golden age mentor, with matching modern/1940s art for each. It starts "in medias res" and gives a few dashes of origin story only as they're needed for the plot, which eschews the world-building pitfall of many series beginnings. It's always cool to see self-published comics get to tell a full story.
Worst parts: The interesting art described above goes out the window in issues 5 (awkward figure drawing and jarringly overdone computerized coloring) and 6 (a Mike Mignola knockoff, which is fine stylistically but out of step with the rest of the series). In the same two issues the central conflict goes from {Spoilers ahead} "two unlikely allies team up," a classic superhero trope, to "maybe we shouldn't have fridged that character, so let's do unnecessary time travel and then decide to fridge TWO characters to reset the status quo." In other words, both artistically and narratively the series falls apart.
There is an awkward afterword that tries to explain the real-world circumstances that led to the artistic issues, but it's a limping apology and includes a misspelling of the word "two," which makes it hard to take seriously.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews