Doctor Spectrum #5

[Mike]

My face can't frown enough. The storyline is really good on this miniseries, and #5 seems to be where the shit is hitting the fan with all the characters.. so much so that I'm going to at least have to pick up the next issue even though Travel Foreman isn't drawing it anymore.

Speaking of the art; you can see Travel's style showing though on the layouts and in certain panels where finishing artist Jonathan Glapion explicitly followed through on the breakdowns. There are more than a few panels that look like ass. Glapion seems to come from the Silvestri/Turner/Weems/BATT school where everything they even draw skin so that it's made of razor blades and anatomy is second to everything. This is, to me, a mistake when paired with even the roughest drawing that Travel can produce, since he seems to be able to put a very correct version of anatomy to paper without effort. It might have been easier on the eyes if Nelson DeCastro had finished out the breakdowns with his own pencils.

Anyway, the story's good if you have stuck it out this long. It's nice to see a mostly non-superhero book from Marvel with writing this nice. Hopefully, Sara Barnes will be able to keep writing comics and continue to grow with the medium.

[MC Fumunda]

Can you elaborate a bit on the story (without giving too much away) so far in the series? I've never heard of it.

[Ichbin Der Ausgang]

Ok, heres the run down on this book.

In light of the events in Supreme Power -the arrival of an alien child in a spacecraft and a mysterious alien gem- The government decides that the Super Man they've tried to harbor for themselves may one day become a threat to the country and the world.
They decide they need someone/thing that is equally as powerful but is completely under their control.
Enlisting the service of Corporal Joe Ledger- army special forces- the government tries to utilize the alien gem as a weapon, if the contingency arises, against Hyperion.
Doctor Spectrum deals with the results of trying to utilize that power and the secrets the gem holds.
The series takes a glimpse into the childhood of the 'gem-bearer' and the decisions that lead him to his current situation.

IMHO Dr. Spectrum is just a bad example of editorial comics, existing only to capitalize off its mother series Supreme Power. The story drags along lifelessly, retreading material covered in Supreme Power.
A very good example of Decompression, it takes 6 issues to tell a story that could have been handled in 2.
All in all I rate Dr. Spectrum a 2 out of 5.
writing: 3
art:2
color:3⅜ (couldnt find the one half symbol)

[K.E. Woolfork]

IMHO Dr. Spectrum is just a bad example of editorial comics, existing only to capitalize off its mother series Supreme Power. The story drags along lifelessly, retreading material covered in Supreme Power.
A very good example of Decompression, it takes 6 issues to tell a story that could have been handled in 2.

IDA, said it best. I try to support all the PJers in their work, but the rapid decrease in the quality of the art and the story was padded to the MAXIMUM [maxi-padded?] over too many issues forced me to drop this with Foreman's last full issue. I'm sure the length of the series is related to an editorial decision though and not Samm Barnes' personal decision.

After seeing the Juggernaut backucp in UXM this series could've shined like a beacon under Townsend's inks. Straight to pencil works in some cases, but on what basically seemed like unfinished breakdowns the lack of detail in the art somehow influenced me to glaze over the story as well.

I liked the peeks into his backstory though, the times with his father and revisiting his time as a soldier especially.

K.

On the flipside of that coin though, check out EJ's Sam and Twitch issue that just came out this week.

[Mike]

A very good example of Decompression, it takes 6 issues to tell a story that could have been handled in 2.
I think maybe my tastes in comics are shifting around a bit since I actually enjoyed the way this story was handled. Maybe enjoyed is too strong a word, actually. "Accepted and was interested with" the story.