Prison Break
Written By: Marguerite Bennett
Art By: Fernando Blanco, John Rauch
Letters By: Deron Bennett
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 18, 2017
Art By: Fernando Blanco, John Rauch
Letters By: Deron Bennett
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 18, 2017
*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*
It’s been no secret that I’ve been hard on this book. Last
month in particular I went for everything I had against this book. I was
swinging so much that I got certain things wrong and had to remove them later.
That’s how hard I wanted to take this book down. Last issue just pissed me off
in the perfect way and I hadn’t even planned on going so hard on it until I
started writing the review and I felt myself get angrier and angrier. However,
no matter how much I get disappointed by this book somehow, I keep hope alive
that the next issue will be good. I’m like a gambling addict at this point. I
know the last seven hands have been shit but that next hand could win me the
money. Honestly, I need to be put in a program at this point. However, I’ve
been allowed to indulge in my habit so lets jump right into this new issue and
keep hope alive.
We begin the issue with Batwoman tripping balls before we
jump back to catch up with Scarecrow and what he has been up to lately. He is
talking with a woman named Fatima who seems to be advising him on his other subjects.
He ignores her input and then goes on about his failsafe for The Many Arms of
Death. He wants her to know that he can strike them hard if he needs to as she
is observing him on behalf of the Twins and “The Queen” (probably Safiyah). He
then tells the story of Perillos. The story entails a king coming to an
inventor to create a new way of executing people and after Perillos has
completed his task, he is used as the first subject to be executed by using the
new method. Crane is a creator and his creations will go against him someday
but he is preparing for that day already.
We then go back to Batwoman’s fear toxin trip where she is
reliving a memory of The Lost Year which involved them killing off the foxes on
the island. After explaining why they had to kill the foxes, Safiyah hands the
gun to Kate and her face turns to a skull. It seems to be a scene that Kate
either regrets or truly despises as it plays out in her mind over and over
before the hallucination changes. She finds herself face to face with her
family. She embraces her mother, father, and sister before they are attacked by
beasts of what they have become. She then comes face to face with that which
she has become, a giant bat. Kate is able to fight them off and overpower the
contorted versions of her family before her normal looking family disappears
into rose petals and Kate awakens from her hallucination.
Kate comes to her senses and she recognizes the man in the
cell next to her as Colony Prime. He questions her about her hallucination
which causes Kate to become very angry and the two fight for quite a while. Colony
Prime reveals that the Colony has been hunting the Many Arms of Death as well and
has been tackling them from a different angle but they both ended at The
Needle. Scarecrow interrupts them and releases more fear toxin into their cells.
However, Batwoman has a countermeasure that was put in her suit and is able to
overload Crane’s system. The explanation is a bit long but I didn’t really mind
it. However, just as they escape their cell another fear toxin bomb is tossed
at them and they begin to hallucinate again. This time though, they have a
chance to fight through their hallucinations and they decide to work together
to get out of this prison. This is where the issue leaves us.
What is this? How could this happen? There’s an issue of
Batwoman rebirth that I don’t hate? I actually enjoyed myself? This is insane!
I think this issue benefits from the fact that most of it is just a fun action
sequence with some really phenomenal art. However, even the parts that I
usually dislike in this book has become more enjoyable. Granted, the Many Arms
of Death and Safiyah stuff is still haunting this book and things are still a
little tedious but this issue made me not care about it because it all hides behind
an extremely charismatic villain. Scarecrow raises the ceiling of this book substantially
as he is just beyond entertaining. He overshadows the Many Arms of Death and
that’s a very good thing. In addition, his fear toxin lends itself to having an
artist go wild. Now, this is just a first step. I can’t say that anyone should
jump back into this book but for the first time in a long time, I am seeing a
little bit of daylight on the horizon.
Bits and Pieces
looks like I picked the wrong issue to cancel my pull on LOL
ReplyDeletelol right now it's an anomaly. Until this series regularly gives us great content, I wouldn't suggest putting it back on yet.
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