Mr. (Looks-[Can Be Decieving])-Terrific
The Good: As much as I enjoyed Gugliotta's artwork, Scott Clark's looks AMAZING in this issue. Gugliotta could make things absolutely gorgeous in some of the more sciency moments, but a lot of faces tend to look odd. Clark's artwork is much more consitently good looking, and has a totally different tone that I think better suits the series. Also his work here is much more grounded and sensible than some of the other work he's done. It works really well overall.
All right, onto the writing!.... No wait, more art talk. The very climactic moments of this issue were extremely effective, again, due to the artwork. Clark seems to specialize in cityscapes and wild machinery, so when both are present in spades, things look very epic.
It might just be Scott Clark's art, but Brainstorm's design is so awesome.
Although the motivation leading into Mr. Terrific's self-loathing is ATROCIOUS, the story hook that its a catlyst for is actually pretty brilliant. I can almost forgive the shoddy plot device that got him there for the completely insane payoff.... ALMOST.
The Bad: I thought the first 2 covers were bad, but DAMN if this one doesn't take the cake. It's not only boring and dull as the first 2, but it's also really messy. And normally this might work with the 'chaos' motif, but it really doesn't. It just looks hella ugly. Also it lies, listing Gugliotta as the artist. REALLY? That makes it seem like you just don't care. The solicit said Scott Clark, how can you make a screw up that big?
Brainstorm LOOKS really awesome, but as a villain he's just awful. Worst New 52 Villain? I think I can sadly say yes. So let me get this straight. He was a scientist who wanted to make Tron a reality. Which made him blue because..... science? And now he wants to be Brainiac because..... science? So he goes around super stimulating people's intelligence so he can absorb their intelligence.... instead of just increasing his own intelligence or draining those already smart? Also it makes them insane because.... Reasons he doesn't care to know? Except he wants to know everything so....
And then they force him to be responsible for Mr. Terrific's tragedy in a HORRENDOUSLY forced way. He wan't even directly responsible, it was just a side effect. And he tries to play this up to goad Mr. Terrific into violence, but his attempts are just so awful. It's like he doesn't know what tone he's going for when recounting the story. But it doesn't matter because Mr. Terrific stupidly looked ready to rip out his throat when Brainstorm revealed he knew his identity. And so Mr. Terrific loses the respect of a few neighborhood kids. Neighborhood kids who drew on their arms to emulate Mr. Terrific's tattoos. Ok. No. Kids see tattoos as a sign of independence, rebellion, hardcore. A kid who idolizes a hero with tattos is very likely to think of said hero as a badass. Seing that hero beating the shit out of a villain should NOT cause such a soap-opera-y fallout. Thus we're treated to a few pages of truly awful melancholy mediocrity.
And then right before the cool spike at the end, we get some stupid non-developments on the subplot involving his supporting cast who I completely forget about because none of them have hardly done jack, and the corporate politics are so vague it's hard to detect any kind of urgency or progress at all.
In Conclusion: 2/5
Scott Clark's art looks AWESOME. Especially here. Well, ok, it was tops on Batman Incorporated, but here I can see it working consistently. Too bad he's only a guest artist. Which is a concept that annoys me in a situation like this, mid story arc for no specific reason. Tone shifts can make artist shifting a thing of beauty, and stuff like different arcs and one-shot issues its fine. But Mid arc, 1 of 3 issues has a radically different artist? No. And its like DC is ashamed of this fact, putting the regular artist's name on the cover. It's like they just didn't care. So why should I? Mr. Terrific gets a halfassed 'barely recommend' if you have a free spot on your pull list, if only for the awesome artwork making certain moments of the climax totally worth it. But otherwise, ugh. For shame. New arc seems more interesting, but my faith in this series is pretty fragile.
