Heroes in Crisis #1
Writer: Tom King
Artist: Clay Mann
Colorist: Tomeu Morey
When Heroes in Crisis was first announced a lot of people really felt anxious to see what Tom King would do on a book about superhero trauma, and rightly so. King so far has had success in writing various miniseries for both Marvel and DC, however his recent work, namely his Batman run has received very mixed reviews. People were waiting patiently to see if we would get another ‘Vision’ by Tom King, or Batman by Tom King.
Unfortunately, it seems to be a lot more like his Batman run. First of all, the art by Clay Mann in this issue is stellar and it is a shame that we don’t get to see a lot more of his work.
As for the rest of the book, I’ll start with the bits that I actually liked. When Tom King does a nine-panel interview with each of the characters, he is able to really capture the emotion of the character and the way in which they feel, doesn’t feel fake or contrived. King writes legitimate fears and worries for the characters.
The rest of the book which is set in the present day is split into two sections. The first one focuses on the Trinity as they go to the headquarters of Sanctuary and discover a lot of heroes have been killed. There is most likely an explanation for this and not necessarily every hero that is shown was dead. The second one is between Harley Quinn and Booster Gold, where a pointless fight takes place that reveals that Booster Gold killed the heroes in Sanctuary.
The last paragraph highlights a bigger problem for me in Tom King’s writing, where it feels like many of his books focus on heroes in trauma. It’s fine for a writer to have a writing style, but that’s fine as long as the book is still interesting, and it feels like each of his books are similar. The focus on trauma works in shorter books such as Vision or Mister Miracle but for longer books such as Batman it feels repetitive and makes the character come off as static or wooden, since the character is only ever happening things done to him/her and instead the character doesn’t change or guide the story themselves. Whilst I like elements of King’s writing I fear that the repetitiveness on one topic, may make his writing feel stale in the long term.
Artist: Clay Mann
Colorist: Tomeu Morey
When Heroes in Crisis was first announced a lot of people really felt anxious to see what Tom King would do on a book about superhero trauma, and rightly so. King so far has had success in writing various miniseries for both Marvel and DC, however his recent work, namely his Batman run has received very mixed reviews. People were waiting patiently to see if we would get another ‘Vision’ by Tom King, or Batman by Tom King.
Unfortunately, it seems to be a lot more like his Batman run. First of all, the art by Clay Mann in this issue is stellar and it is a shame that we don’t get to see a lot more of his work.
As for the rest of the book, I’ll start with the bits that I actually liked. When Tom King does a nine-panel interview with each of the characters, he is able to really capture the emotion of the character and the way in which they feel, doesn’t feel fake or contrived. King writes legitimate fears and worries for the characters.
The rest of the book which is set in the present day is split into two sections. The first one focuses on the Trinity as they go to the headquarters of Sanctuary and discover a lot of heroes have been killed. There is most likely an explanation for this and not necessarily every hero that is shown was dead. The second one is between Harley Quinn and Booster Gold, where a pointless fight takes place that reveals that Booster Gold killed the heroes in Sanctuary.
The last paragraph highlights a bigger problem for me in Tom King’s writing, where it feels like many of his books focus on heroes in trauma. It’s fine for a writer to have a writing style, but that’s fine as long as the book is still interesting, and it feels like each of his books are similar. The focus on trauma works in shorter books such as Vision or Mister Miracle but for longer books such as Batman it feels repetitive and makes the character come off as static or wooden, since the character is only ever happening things done to him/her and instead the character doesn’t change or guide the story themselves. Whilst I like elements of King’s writing I fear that the repetitiveness on one topic, may make his writing feel stale in the long term.
A Look Inside
