DC Universe Presents-Men of War Edition
Ok now THIS cover is awesome. It's not 'Men of War' awesome but its'... wait a second. It's the same artist? Why isn't it as mind blowingly unique? It's certainly not even close to bad, but it's a lot closer to 'generic' than ANY Men of War cover. Pretty badass though.
UGH. As I feared, this issue is continuing to have the issue title be the 'character' title. Yes, I know, 'The War That TIme Forgot' isn't a character, but it is a licensed property. Unlike 'Men of War' or 'G.I. Combat,' The War That Time Forgot denotes a specific concept. It's be like if every issue of All-Star Western had the issue title 'Jonah Hex.' Hex doesn't HAVE to be the headliner, but he is. Granted he's probably going to stay the headliner in All-Star Western MUCH longer than The War That Time Forgot is in G.I. Combat, but does that mean we can't give issues actual issue titles?
Hooooo boy. Ariel Olivetti has art that looks good. AND NOTHING MORE. The artwork in The War That Time Forgot is STIFF AS A BOARD. A board made of diamond. Sure it looks pretty, but it ain't movin.' Oh god, it's such a shame. Everything looks pretty for art, but TERRIBLE for a comic. Comics need flow and motion, something Olivetti's art has absolutely no sign of. I desperately wanted to like the art, but it's just so terrible for a comic. Nothing had any sense of energy to it, nothing was ever moving. EVER.
As for the story.... not a lot happens. 75% of it relies heavily on the action. The action which is static and painful. There's so emotions built in the beginning, but this issue is honestly almost entirely action. When you have a comic with the dullestly depicted action ever, you DON'T MAKE THE STORY RELY HEAVILY ON ACTION.
And then it kind of messes with itself. It's called The War That Time Forgot, but it really stresses the fact that it's a story of soldiers on opposite sides banding together in an effort of pure survival. It's 'G.I. Combat' kind of stuff, sure; but it's not a 'War.' So 'The War That Time Forgot' just doesn't work as a title here.
'Unknown Soldier: Chapter Two' is a LITTLE better than just being 'Unknown Soldier' a second time, but not by a whole lot. Especially since it tries NOT to be a 'co-feature' as we usually know it, but an equal headliner. Both stories are given 14 pages to work with. The War That Time Forgot felt short, but I feel like a lot of that was due to me breezing through the boring action. Unknown Soldier feels like its really at a nice length.
Panosian's art really works where Olivetti's fails. Unknown Soldier is kinetic and energetic as hell. A few faces look terrible, but overall there's such a loose and free sense of dynamism. Unknown Soldier's twisted dream is an epic psychological experience to behold, and the combat later on is just so damn cool.
In Conclusion: 3.5/5
It's sad really, The War That Time Forgot is REALLY dragging this series down. Also, since both stories have an equal division of pages, I might start reviewing them as separate stories and using the average as my final score for the issue, just like I do with Batman Beyond Unlimited. But really, they both seem to use the limited page space really well. If TWTTF's action wasn't so flat, it would probably feel like a good enough length. Unknown Soldier was EXCELLENT this issue, but TWTTF is only getting worse. I'm curious to see more Unknown Soldier, so the prospect of both ending in the 4th issue gives me extremely mixed feelings. I'm glad to see TWTTF go to make room for something that'll improve the series, but I'm sad to see Unknown Soldier leaving, as it's really full of continuation potential. It also makes me wonder about the future of this series as a whole. 4 issue stories? Changing characters already? Is this basically DC Universe Presents: Men of War Edition?
