Posted in: Comics, Review | Tagged: action, gabriel ibarra nunez, graveland, massimo rosi, sci-fi, scout comics

Graveland #4 Review: Fun Action Weighed Down by Confusing Plotting and Art

The Giant siege of Los Angeles rages on, and Titan Amon is killing as many as he can. He discovers that the Giants have a sentient leader, and targeting this leader is the best way to put a dent in their invasion.

Elsewhere, a mysterious figure attacks the command base in contact with Amon.

The battle for Los Angeles is pretty cool, with the super-powered Amon Park finding creative and insane ways of bringing down the monsters. Park is definitely more likable as a character when he isn't constantly saying reprehensible things.

The Giant leader is pretty cool. He has a nice design which allows him to stand out, and he challenges Park to solitary duel like a Klingon.

That mysterious figure that invades the base has a lot of similarities to Amon Park. I won't go into specific details on how, but I will say that they are possibly too similar. There's nothing functionally separating the beyond what they are doing at this exact moment. Hopefully Graveland will do something to explore this similarity and justify it.

The Giant invasion and the clandestine government supersoldier experiments that created the likes of Park still have yet to be meaningfully connected. At this point, Graveland is just juggling the two plots that happen to be going on at the same time. If there was a reason we were focusing on these two aspects that the same time, it would go a long way for the series in tightening the narrative.

Gabriel Ibarra Nunez's art, which is similar to Andrea Sorrentino in how it mixes hyper-realism, silhouetting, and drastic color contrasts, looks good on the whole. However, there are many sequences that are intensely hard to follow, especially in the fight between Park and the Giant leader. This could be due to a vague script of course, but an editor should catch problems like this.

In addition, scene transition is a shaky process. It took me a bit to discern between the Los Angeles battle and the invasion of the military base. Nothing signaled a change in setting, especially given the tendency of Park towards duplicity and sudden violence.

Graveland is a comic that still bears a lot of potential, and its overall plot and aesthetic is compelling. It falls apart in its characters and forward progression. I can tentatively recommend it to those interested in a Pacific Rim-esque kaiju smackdown. Just bear in mind that it is far from flawless.

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