Collapser #6 – Mikey Way, Shaun Simon, Writers; Ilias Kyriazis, Artist; Cris Peter, Colorist
Ratings:
Ray – 6/10
Ray: Collapser #6 is the final issue of this oddball superhero adventure from the Young Animal line, and the most surprising thing about it is how conventional the final issue is.
For the most part, the story of Liam James has been one surreal twist after another, but Collapser #6 is a pretty standard tale of good vs. evil. Liam’s evil father and his ex Vanessa Volt have stolen Liam’s black hole, setting about to bring the Earth under their control like they did to hundreds of other planets. Liam is still being targeted by the interstellar assassin hunting the black hole, but once he finds out Liam is no longer a threat, he teams up with him and shares the story of why he’s so obsessed with hunting it down. Seeing a planet destroyed by evil is always affecting, but at the same time we just saw this story in Wonder Woman: Come Back to Me #6 this week and I think that creative team handled the emotions better.
But their odd-couple team-up is amusing once it gets going.
The final half of the issue is a spotlight for the art of Ilias Kyriazis, who is easily one of the best finds the company debuted in a while. They remind me a lot of a more surreal Sonny Liew, and the use of color and shifting reality in this issue is excellent.
The ending comes a little abruptly as the battle shifts the second the power does and the big bads are dispatched almost off-handedly. The ending in general feels rather rushed, as Liam’s character arc and reunion with his friends is sort of fast-forwarded through. What does work is the tone of the ending, which gives us hope that the character could become a decent hero, but in places it feels unearned because he’s been so thoroughly unlikable until now.
Overall, like most of the Young Animal line this feels like an interesting experiment that doesn’t quite come together into a full story.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
Disclaimer: GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
