There's that thing that happens a lot on television. When a show is new, it pushes the envelope. It does things that no show has done before. Characters you were falling in love with...suddenly die. Tragedy... strikes the unsuspecting. It keeps you on the edge of your seat, chews up your emotions, and has you saying things like "Holy shit! This is the best TV I've ever seen!" The Wire was like that for me. Remember when those kids killed Wallace? I still well up when I think about that.
The thing that happens with a lot of the non-Wire shows that pull stuff like that is, well, they become hits. Hit shows with newly-popular actors. And then, at some point, all that cutting edge stuff starts to wane due to the writers or the network attempting to keep the cash cow cha-ching-ing, because they don't have an actual story they're planning on telling, they've just got the up-the-tension gimmick, and the gimmick wears off. Suddenly, no main characters are up and dying, because all they've got left are the stars, and you can't kill them. The stories drag on and on. The very thing that made the show sexy and attractive was the surprise, and when there's no surprises left, there's just story--and they've run out. True Blood's a good example of this, I think.
The Sword Volume 3: Earth
By The Luna Brothers
Published by Image Comics
So, anyhow, this was my fear for The Sword. I thought that maybe all the craziest killing and circumstances were all used up in the first volume, and now that us readers are hooked, we were gonna get a lot more of the story, but it seems to me that the only story here is the crazy, it's the wait'll-you-see-what's coming, it was just going to drag on and pass out.
I am so happy to report that THIS IS NOT SO!!! Oh man, the things in this volume. Holy Josephine, there's a lot to deal with. Just to wet your appetite, there's a carload of Mexicans that show up to meet Knossos (one of the god-powered brothers who killed Dara's family) out in the desert. The Mexicans find him next to a large hole he has dug, so of course, I assume he's about to kill someone. But does he shoot them? No. Stab them? No. No No No. He takes one guy who has done well for him--he's running a hugely successful drug cartel, natch--but who happened to be arrogant and made some changes without checking with Knossos first and BURIES HIM ALIVE. Man, something about that scene - the way it's written or drawn - was so surprising. It was a full on "holy shit" moment.
Now, I hear you: a person could think, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. But those are new characters that we're not attached to." Okay, wait til you hear and see this. As expected, Dara hunts down Knossos. She's involved in a whole lot of slicing and dicing as she faces machine guns...and its too much for her. As she flees the scene she drops the sword. (But of course, she is determined to get it back.) Well, holy hell - one of Knosses's henchmen now has it and is getting all arrogant and power hungry, just as Dara returns. He turns and sees her and slices off her bottom jaw. You read that right! Slices off the bottom half of her jaw. Chin, teeth and tongue go flying.And without a second to waste thinking about it, she reaches out to touch the sword, powers up, and she lunges in and punches the henchman in the mouth out the back of his head.
What?!?!? As she's holding the sword, of course, she begins to heal. Her skin begins to reform around her jaw and close up. So what does she do? RIPS THE SKIN OFF AND THEN PICKS UP HER JAW, HER JAW THAT IS ON THE GROUND AND REATTACHES IT. I mean, has anything like this ever been done? In this way? Wait, any way, not just "this" way. This can't happen a lot. Does this happen a lot?
This is what I'm talking about. Just when I thought, via volume two, that things were gonna chill out and not be as crazy-bloody-violent-surreal anymore, I was happily proved wrong.
And I don't even like gore! (I imagine that's hard to believe, and maybe it's because this is a comic and not a movie, but no, I never, ever get into gory stuff.)
But this is too cool. I love it. I just love it. The Sword has stayed true! The Sword has been consistent! Not at this point, at least. But I am so excited to start reading the issues that will make up Volume 4. Yep, that's right. It's happened. A comic book has gotten me so interested that I will now buy issues of it. Isn't that what I was looking for all along?
Now don't you fret. I haven't forgotten Y The Last Man, or Cinderella, or any of those. I've got a lot more to explore. But The Sword is seriously satisfying. That's for sure.
-Nina Stone, 2010
Where the fuck is Wallace? String? STRING WHERE THE FUCK IS WALLACE?
Posted by: sean witzke | 2010.03.02 at 18:17
I really, really, REALLY need to find a way to pick up that last season of "The Wire"...
Posted by: LurkerWithout | 2010.03.02 at 20:34
Wire had the best deaths.
Posted by: Nathan | 2010.03.03 at 11:22
Just wait till you get to issue 22, then!
Posted by: Jordan | 2010.03.03 at 16:34
I told you so about The Sword. Tell me I was right.
Vol 4 isn't really blowing me away, though.
Posted by: John Pontoon | 2010.03.08 at 00:43
john- dick move, fella.
"I told you you'd love it!! Everything you just read was just the fucking best, right?!! Oh yeah, but the stuff you're now looking forward to is crap."
ooofff. Isn't that just what Nina said she was most excited by, that this comic doesn't lose its momentum and stall out?
Should have given her a chance to go in there excited, you know?
Posted by: mateo | 2010.03.10 at 13:12
Hell, that's nothing - I also have a ninja dick move, megaton dick move, robodick dick move... you may cry with the insensitivity of it all.
Not wanting to start a comment flame war - which might be a pitiful thing to do if one thinks REALLY hard about it - but I'm sure Ms. Stone's capable of getting her own panties in a bunch. The world needn't defend her from every perceived faux pas.
I apologize for everything. Kisses!
Posted by: John Pontoon | 2010.03.10 at 19:30