Dv8: Gods and Monsters #6

“Teenage Riot” (No Spoilers)

This was the issue I was waiting for! We’ve had some great setup with some action here and there but here we finally get a huge battle in this issue. Brian Wood’s storytelling and Rebekah Isaac’s art continue to be married perfectly into this incredible story.

Good storytelling is about balance. As we’ve progressed through the series I think for the most part this creative team has kept a good balance. Some issues read a little slower than I would’ve liked but they were usually followed up by something really cool. But after straddling the fence for so long we finally come to an action heavy issue. I finally get to see Bliss’ tribe in action (not a spoiler, it’s in the solicit). Although, I won’t say which deviant she decides to go after. It is beautifully done and had some amazing fight scenes throughout. I can safely say Isaacs has no problem drawing huge battle scenes. I can’t wait to see what else she’s got in the last two issues.

Dv8: Gods and Monsters #5

“The Beautiful People” (No Spoilers)

We’re almost done with the re-introduction of the Dv8 gang. It was apparent from the start that this was what Wood was going to do. For the most part, I think he’s done a good job of it. However, I’ve felt some of the re-introductions have been stronger than others.

Here we focus on Sublime and Evo. It’s interesting that Wood decided to put these two in an issue together but if he hadn’t, all eight issues of this series would’ve been taken up by a character. As it stands, it seems that only the last issue will focus on all of them (I realize issue 1 did, but it used Copycat as the main character to do it). Fiona Staples’ beautiful cover is a perfect summary of this issue concerning these two characters. I don’t remember too much about either character so it was nice to focus on them a little. Although, I think ultimately Sublime gets more of a focus than Evo.

Dv8: Gods and Monsters #2

“Cursed Female” (No Spoilers)
This issue was a little more reserved but I really didn’t mind due to the strong delivery of last issue. In the last issue, Brian Wood and Rebekah Isaacs accomplished the incredible task of getting the story set-up, establishing a great conflict and re-introducing the characters. Here we take time to focus on the character of Bliss. I really like the structure of the story because it seems that Wood is going to layout each character’s motivations before we get into any heavy action. In fact, this issue is very light on the action (although Frostbite does get to show off his powers in a ‘cool’ way -pun intended).

Dv8: Gods and Monsters #1

“The Day I Tried to Live” (No Spoilers)
Wow! This is a really deep comic. Brian Wood has taken these characters that were once simply the “evil Gen 13”, and presented what is almost a psychological study of them. When Warren Ellis took these characters into their own series, his interest in the characters seemed to be that they were screwed up individuals and he wanted to explore that. As much as I usually like Ellis’ work, I didn’t think his Dv8 run was that great. Although he did tell some stories with these characters that were pretty messed up, ultimately I don’t think it really got into each of the team members like Wood does here.