Comics
[Comic Book Review] “POP” #3 Is A Little Too Heavy On Plot
The penultimate issue of “POP” by Curt Pires and Jason Copland takes a plot heavy direction as things build towards the grand finale. The socially critical themes and tones that have made this series stand out are missing from this issue due, it would seem, to having so much story to tell. Don’t expect to have your mind blown with this one, it looks like Pires is saving the best for last.
WRITTEN BY: Curt Pires
ART BY: Jason Copland
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: October 22, 2014
Review By Eric Switzer
Remember the last season of “LOST” when Jacob finally reveals himself and all the beautiful mystery he was responsible for suddenly sound like utter horse shit coming out of his mouth?
“POP” may very well have set the bar too high with issues one and two. My feeling about this issue is that it tells its story but doesn’t really say anything worth hearing. It tries to: in a scene in which our heroes-on-the-run examine nature of existence and the burden of ephemerality, but it is full of familiar sentiments and does little to provoke the imagination. I realize these are high expectations to have for a single issue of a limited series, but this book has impressed to an almost soul-shaking degree and now, in issue three, I feel slightly abandoned.
A big issue I have with setting aside the social critique how non-compelling the characters are. Elle is essentially a blank slate whose purpose has seemed to be a physical representation of the questions Pires is interested in asking, rather than a fully fledged human character, and Coop is disconnected, depressed, and representative of consumer culture, again not a dynamic human being. Too much time is spent on the would-be killer couple hunting Elle and the enigmatic Cartel, though always fun to look in on, has the thinnest characters imaginable.
Again, I don’t mean to disparage, because this book has meant a lot to me and I’m expecting big things from the finale. I’m just starting to feel as though I can see a hint of the wires, a edge of a stage light, and the corner of a hastily painted backdrop. The magic isn’t lost, but it may have faded.
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Eric Switzer is an aspiring filmmaker and screenplay writer living in Los Angeles. His work tends to focus on the lighter side of entropy, dystopic futures, and man’s innate struggle with his own mortality. He can be found on twitter @epicswitzer or reached via email at ericswitzerfilm@gmail.com.
IDW Dark and Paramount recently joined forces to launch limited comic book tales set in the worlds of Smile and A Quiet Place, and we’ve learned today that they’ll continue hanging around in those franchise universes with two brand new limited series tales.
Entertainment Weekly has exclusively revealed this afternoon that IDW Dark’s Any Given Smile debuts in September, while A Quiet Place: Rising Tides arrives in November.
First up, from writer Stephanie Williams and artist Pablo Collar, Any Given Smile puts a football-themed twist on Parker Finn’s successful Smile movie franchise.
The five-part limited series is “set in January 1995, during the American Arena League football championship game in St. Augustine, Florida. The rising superstar of the Sharks, backup quarterback Dupree, is feeling the pressure from his teammates, the fans, and also the city’s gambling underworld, to whom he owes a considerable debt. Meanwhile, a sports journalist investigates a string of suicides that may be connected to the big game. At the very least, they are connected to a sinister entity that preys on the minds of its victims.”
From writer Declan Shalvey and artist Luke Sparrow, A Quiet Place: Rising Tides will also be a five-issue limited story. The comic book tale “brings the creatures to the Florida Keys, where a father-daughter duo attempt to survive on water in a houseboat.”
EW further details, “This tense family reunion coincides with the arrival of the vicious creatures that hunt through sound. Grace and her dad find safety on the open ocean, but she’ll have to make landfall sooner or later; the father’s oxygen tank and their supplies are running low, while a hurricane swiftly approaches.”
Learn more about both comic books over on Entertainment Weekly.
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