Please view my reviews of the previous issues for my thoughts on them, and general overview fluffery that comes with looking at installments of anything that deal with concepts and characters that have any amount of history. You may also want to see my interview with series writer Eric Shanower.
To those who are familiar with OZ strictly from the movie, or the more modern books in the setting (like a Wicked) this is the issue that I think most overtly will engage readers with differences between the famous – I’d say iconic – movie interpretation from the original Baum novels.
The companions confront the Wicked Witch of the West in this issue, and continues the theme that each perform a part on the journey. The Tin Man , in a pretty mean page, slaughters wolves; the Scarecrow foils flocks of crows; the Lion instills fear into the winkies; teamwork foils swarms of bees– tests and lessons wrapped up into one. In contrast, there is also tenderness in this issue. While the art style could never be called realistic, it somehow exudes a tangible heart upon scenes. A hug shared by a girl and a scarecrow has feeling, a girl’s smile when speaking of Kansas – of her home – is real.
What I’ve really enjoyed about this series is that outside of the principal characters telling their various origins, the story has very much so played evenly in terms of giving value of each goal, and of each encounter. In short, they played the quest-story straight. I say this because, even if only momentarily, it had to be enticing to feel free to throw a curve in this issue, and to use the narrative and dialogue turn the Wicked Witch into something more, something beyond, a deviation for the sake of what perhaps passes for dramatic effect now. While Baum’s Dorothy was a bit more the ass kicker than the one we saw in the film, she is still an innocent girl, an innocent murder committed by a little girl who just wanted her shoe back. In one sense, she is stronger because she was not trying to dose her friend running aflame, she was instead acting out for herself, but it still wasn’t a decision to take a life. The girl from Kansas stood up for herself, no excuses given or needed, but is able to leave this part of the story tested certainly, but unblemished.
If you’ve read my reviews of the previous issues in this series you’d be aware that – for what I think are obvious reasons – a fan of Skottie Young’s work in this series. BSC has principally been a book (prose) venue and more specifically of speculative fiction, so I know how odd award balloting, long lists, and short list can be and can get. With that in mind I was still disappointed that I didn’t see Young’s name on the Eisner ballot released last week, but I think when these issues are collected readers are going to be taken aback at the power and beauty of world-reimagining. I want to leave my final thoughts on what I think are Young’s visual contributions to the OZ mythos for a review at the end of the series (or perhaps later as I believe a second arc is planned), but needless to say, this issue continues the excellence that has defined the visual aspect off this entire series. I’m not sure if tour de force is applicable to adaptations, but this is an OZ that will be a most worthy introduction to those discovering OZ once a trade or hardcover adorns library shelves. The witch here is marvelously rendered – a pimp umbrella, and sippin’ on a curly straw? Perfect.
Just Perfect. Like winged-monkeys.
- Jay Tomio
Jan-ken-pon is the time traveling, force-walking, multiverse crossing column of Jay Tomio, owner of 1/3 of everything you see currently on screen, and the editor of Heliotrope. He punched a Witch’s eye out once. Some call him the Bodhisattva.
