Winter Men (Wildstorm – Lewis / Leon)
I was a little surprised to see this. While I love the art and Idea of the original mini-series, it was a total dud from a story telling and sales point. And this one shot, like it’s namesake, is long, cold, dark, and I pretty much looked forward to it’s end.
All the same problems exist with this one-shot that existed in the original. It is very confusing., not only in how things unfold, but just the whole murky uncertainty of the back story. It tries to be tonally gritty and realistic, but it’s too wordy, and the writing is pretty much too artsy for it’s own good. And all the information in the boxes isn’t really relevant or even interesting. Sorry, guys.
That said I stick with it because it has potential, the world they’ve crafted, as far as I can tell, is intriguing, but what really keeps me coming back is John Paul Leon’s art. It is totally worth getting this book just to look at the pictures.
I thought it was very clever on the first page the main character, Kalenov, states, “My little friends, I thought I would have more time to tell you how things ended up. But perhaps for now…” which I figure is clearly addressing the fact the mini-series was probably cut short on account of bad sales, and this one-shot is all the space they get to wrap things up. I hope that’s what it was, because it was my favorite part of the book, next to the art.
C- for story. A for art.
