• Review - X Men Noir: Mark of Cain #4

    Issue: X Men Noir: Mark of Cain #4
    Writer: Fred Van Lente
    Artist: Dennis Calero
    Date Published: March 2010
    Alpha Appearance: Alternate version of Puck
    Period in Alpha Flight's history: N/A

    OVERVIEW:

    It all comes together. People are betrayed, friendships are affirmed, new characters are crawling out of the woodwork (literally).

    REVIEW:

    This issue was slightly easier for me to review on its own than the last, because I read it on its own. (I got the first three at the same time because of technobabble.)

    Last time, I mentioned finding the art easier to 'read' than other people did.
    I'm gonna take that back. There were a lot of times here when I couldn't tell who I was supposed to be looking at. It made it hard to follow the complex narrative; who betrayed who? Who was on whose side? That's hard to tell in the convoluted plot, even harder when I can't see who I'm seeing.
    Yes, I think I did figure it all out, but I still felt, I dunno... distant? from it.

    Oh, and btw, Cain Marko was really dead. Big (non-sarcastic) surprise there.

    This one took the biggest departure I've yet seen from their 'real world'-style setting, in the form of the SHIELD Helicarrier, or at least their version of it. It looks cool and might even work if they'd put the zeppelins on top, instead of beneath.

    Overall, I thought this could be a lot clearer, and would've been a lot more satisfying if it had been.

    Da Juice, for Alpha fans:
    In this one, Puck played set dressing. He was hardly more than a cameo, and I don't think he got any lines. It felt like Alan Rickman in Harry Potter (3?); the character had to be there, so he was, but he had nothing to do.
    edit: Ben has pointed out Puck does have a single line: "Tommy - where are you?".

    RATING:
    on its own:

    4/10


    For Alpha Flightness:

    1/10
    Comments 3 Comments
    1. rplass's Avatar
      rplass -
      I'm getting this error while clicking on the link:

      Code:
      rplass, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:
      
      Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
      If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation
      Why is this happening, maybe the linked article hasn't been approved yet? The link shouldn't be there if it's not approved yet!

      Love,
      rplass
    1. Ben's Avatar
      Ben -
      It wasn't totally published yet. I started playing with polishing it up, but got caught up, and ran outta time.

      BTW, Puck DOES have one line page 14:"Where are you Tommy?"
    1. Le Messor's Avatar
      Le Messor -
      I can't even blame the unclear artwork for that one.

      PS, sorry I haven't worked out how to maple leaf properly myself...

      - LM
      "Great people have one thing in common - they do not conform."
      - P.K. Shaw