Play With Plagues
Writer: Gene Luen Yang
Artist: Stephen Segovia
Colors: Photobunker
Letterer: Tom Napolitano
Cover: Doc Shaner
Assistant Editor: Dave Wielgosz
Editor: Paul Kaminski
Group Editor: Jamie S. Rich
Cover Price: $3.99
On Sale Date: April 24, 2019
**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**
Well there’s a new writer for the series, and
what’s else is that Gene Luen Yang is credited as the writer! None of this “storytellers”
nonsense, that implied the books were being done using the “Marvel method,”
that is, plotting and pencils first, dialogue second. That worked very poorly,
so here’s hoping that the standard scripting method works better! Check out my
review of The Terrifics #15, right here!
Explain It!
So the story begins right where the previous creative team left off, with the
Terrifics…uh, existing. Mr. Terrific is on a date with Mrs. Terrific, where he
points out that despite each of them being the multiversal counterpart of their
dead spouses, they ain’t the same. Which seems to bother Michael more than it
does Paula, for some reason. Their ruminations are interrupted by two T-Spheres
that alert Mr. and Mrs. Terrific to a cataclysm, already in progress!
A gigantic snake is destroying the Stagg Industries
Campus, and the other members of the Terrifics seem unable to stop it!
Metamorpho and Plastic man worm their way inside the snake, and then burst
free, proving it to be some kind of Tron-type projection or something. Mr.
Terrific is able to isolate some massive humanoid figure, who appears to be in control
of the previously seen snake, but they are unidentifiable. This being says she’s
“his herald,” and she’s got a message: let go or suffer!
Michael tries to talk to Stagg about the
implications of this, but he’s got a meeting with military brass to attend. There,
he attempts to show off some new military tech using holograms—but something
goes wrong, and Metamorpho saves Stagg and Sapphire from getting killed.
Elsewhere, Plas and Phantom Girl listen in on…another date between Michael and
Paula? Are they trying to do thirty dates in thirty days? This date is also
interrupted by the holographic frogmen that plagued Stagg’s demonstration to
the military, who are actual anthropomorphic frogs when their masks are removed.
The Terrifics dispatch the frogmen, after they also advise everyone to let go
or suffer, and then the team is beset by holographic gnats! That’s when Plas
realizes that these are some of the biblical Plagues of Israel—and they’re fighting
against God!
This read a lot better than previous issues,
and it certainly doesn’t seem decompressed. If anything, it’s a little too
packed with stuff, members of the team are everywhere they need to be, without
a lot of explanation or cause. The strife between Mr. and Mrs. Terrific seemed
to drag a bit, but that might be just because I want to see them together, and
don’t feel like brooking any discontent. This is a fairly solid, though inauspicious
start for the new creative team, hopefully they can ratchet up the tension in
successive issues…considering we’re paying another buck for the privilege of reading
it.
Bits and
Pieces:
The story goes in a slightly new direction, and
the team works together well to dispatch a few problems. The reading experience
is better, but this issue is still pretty mediocre, all told. If you’ve been
waiting for this book to get really good, that may yet be forthcoming…but it
will take a few issues to find out.
6.5/10
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