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It's been so long since I read PART ONE of the OZ mini-series, that I had to check that out before picking up PART TWO. My opinions of the first installment were the story was reasonable, but the artwork let the whole thing down, and that's a fair summation of what I thought about this part as well. The story starts with Master Shantou filling in Oz and Jinan, but most of the comic is concerned with Oz's training and his attempt to conquer the wolf inside him. The fact that the story therefore takes place over the best part of a month means that we only see snapshots of this training. Oz isn't the most talkative BUFFY character, so this works quite well as we simply getting Shantou's "voice-over" in many panels. As you'd expect, the full moon comes towards the end of the book, as Oz attempts to tame the wolf. Since this is only the middle part of a three-part story, it's hardly surprising that he doesn't quite pull it off. But he, Shantou and Jinan have got other problems, as the forces of Muztag are gathering... Storywise, this is reasonable stuff, but what really lets it down is the artwork. The cover shows a detailed wolf, and a demonic Jinan, but the art inside the comic is completely different. Okay, so you don't expect it to be, but it just seems very sloppily done. Oz looks nothing like Seth Green, but photo-realism isn't everything, and I'd rather have a vibrant comic than stock poses of the title character. One of the biggest problems is the lack of consistency. Jinan probably fares the worse - veering from a cute looking chick to a drag queen (the panel where she asks Shantou to take her on as a student is a prime example). In fact, the only notable thing art-wise is the AMERICAN PIE in-joke on Willow's T-shirt. Overall, another sub-standard effort, although it would have scored an above average mark had the artwork been better. BACK TO THE TOP |
OZ: INTO THE WILD |
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