Zodiac #3
Zenescope Entertainment 2019
Written by Joe Brusha
Illustrated by Daniel Maine
Coloured by Jorge Cortes
Lettered by Taylor Esposito of Ghost Glyph Studios
PART 3 OF 3
As the War of the Grail wages, Merlin the Magician looks to give himself an advantage by using his deadliest assassin of all time to eliminate his biggest threats in the Order of Tarot. Logan Patrick O’Connell spent his adult life ridding the streets of drugs using his own deadly methods until a mistake drove him from his home in Belfast, Ireland. Once O’Connell met Merlin, his life was forever changed and he began on the path to vengeance. Thus, Zodiac was born.
This was the issue we were expecting, the one where Logan makes his decision once and for all. Though to be honest I think we all knew what that decision was going to be already. Still when he meets “the Devil” I think that really cemented things for him. For me it’s a stark contrast of the double standard in Zenescope’s books. Her with her barely there look ensuring that she’s basically wearing a thong and his head to toe armour. I really am not a fan of the scared of the male body insecure boy feelings. You’d also at least think her henchmen would be barely there dressed since she is hmm.
I like the motivation behind Logan’s decision—I keep wanting to call him Colin as a nice Irish ginger—to destroy the warehouse and I am equally a fan of seeing that certain something that would and did prevent him from fighting back. Of course any rational person would have to know that magic can create that but the essence should’ve been long gone by now, moved onto some other plane. Still it was rather effective.
This is when things kind of go all over the place for me. We spend a lot of time in his mind here, in a hell of his own creation as some sort of atonement for what he’s done or just a place he feels he deserves. Regardless we spend a lot of time here and I don’t think it was necessary and bam he’s back and somewhere else. I don’t like the jump, the timing feels off to me and let’s face it how the hell did he get there. If we’d seen that bit instead of all that time in his head space it would have made things just a tad more believable and help it make sense.
The interiors here are nice. There is some very nice attention to detail happening here and the linework has wonderful variation in its weights. The way that we see backgrounds being utilised here is utterly fantastic and whether it’s the artwork on the wall to the containers on the ship or just the scenery of the city it has this great way of adding size and scope to the book as well as expanding the moments. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a good solid eye for storytelling. The colour work is sensational as well. From the gradation in the sky to the work in clothing thanks to light sources the shading and the over all oomph is there.
This is my biggest problem with Joe’s writing. Logan’s time in his head, being fished out of the river and mended up and then getting back to where he went into the water and we find out hardly any time has passed. Come on the pacing here is horrible there is no way that building is still on fire or that the Devil is dealing with her cop trying to quiet things down and still in the area. Joe loses us at the moment Logan goes into the water and he’s not able to right the ship as it were. God bless his heart for trying but no.
Thankfully we have a lot of questions now to be answered because the actions here. The interior artwork is extremely good and well worth seeing. Logan Colin is an interesting character and he’s got a lot of potential and I hope we see him again in the near future.
Zenescope Entertainment 2019
Written by Joe Brusha
Illustrated by Daniel Maine
Coloured by Jorge Cortes
Lettered by Taylor Esposito of Ghost Glyph Studios
PART 3 OF 3
As the War of the Grail wages, Merlin the Magician looks to give himself an advantage by using his deadliest assassin of all time to eliminate his biggest threats in the Order of Tarot. Logan Patrick O’Connell spent his adult life ridding the streets of drugs using his own deadly methods until a mistake drove him from his home in Belfast, Ireland. Once O’Connell met Merlin, his life was forever changed and he began on the path to vengeance. Thus, Zodiac was born.
This was the issue we were expecting, the one where Logan makes his decision once and for all. Though to be honest I think we all knew what that decision was going to be already. Still when he meets “the Devil” I think that really cemented things for him. For me it’s a stark contrast of the double standard in Zenescope’s books. Her with her barely there look ensuring that she’s basically wearing a thong and his head to toe armour. I really am not a fan of the scared of the male body insecure boy feelings. You’d also at least think her henchmen would be barely there dressed since she is hmm.
I like the motivation behind Logan’s decision—I keep wanting to call him Colin as a nice Irish ginger—to destroy the warehouse and I am equally a fan of seeing that certain something that would and did prevent him from fighting back. Of course any rational person would have to know that magic can create that but the essence should’ve been long gone by now, moved onto some other plane. Still it was rather effective.
This is when things kind of go all over the place for me. We spend a lot of time in his mind here, in a hell of his own creation as some sort of atonement for what he’s done or just a place he feels he deserves. Regardless we spend a lot of time here and I don’t think it was necessary and bam he’s back and somewhere else. I don’t like the jump, the timing feels off to me and let’s face it how the hell did he get there. If we’d seen that bit instead of all that time in his head space it would have made things just a tad more believable and help it make sense.
The interiors here are nice. There is some very nice attention to detail happening here and the linework has wonderful variation in its weights. The way that we see backgrounds being utilised here is utterly fantastic and whether it’s the artwork on the wall to the containers on the ship or just the scenery of the city it has this great way of adding size and scope to the book as well as expanding the moments. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a good solid eye for storytelling. The colour work is sensational as well. From the gradation in the sky to the work in clothing thanks to light sources the shading and the over all oomph is there.
This is my biggest problem with Joe’s writing. Logan’s time in his head, being fished out of the river and mended up and then getting back to where he went into the water and we find out hardly any time has passed. Come on the pacing here is horrible there is no way that building is still on fire or that the Devil is dealing with her cop trying to quiet things down and still in the area. Joe loses us at the moment Logan goes into the water and he’s not able to right the ship as it were. God bless his heart for trying but no.
Thankfully we have a lot of questions now to be answered because the actions here. The interior artwork is extremely good and well worth seeing. Logan Colin is an interesting character and he’s got a lot of potential and I hope we see him again in the near future.
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