SOVEREIGNS #5
Sovereigns written by Ray Fawkes
Sovereigns art by Johnny Desjardins
Sovereigns colors by Mohan
Doc Spektor written by Aubrey Sitterson
Doc Spektor art by Dylan Burnett
Doc Spektor colos by Triona T. Farrell
Published by Dynamite
I really enjoyed the first four issues of this five-part mini-series. The art has been very solid and the story seemed epic and intricate. Admittedly there were certain plot elements that I didn’t fully understand, but I optimistically assumed that they would tie things up by the end of the story. It’s always been fairly obvious what the ultimate intent of the mini-series would be, which is to launch the three new solo series: Magnus, Turok, and Doctor Spektor. I was somewhat disappointed that they fail to address many of the significant questions of this story, choosing to focus instead on explaining the origin of the solo series. Ultimately it hurts the enjoyability of the entire mini-series and prevents it from standing on its own.
One of the major failures of the story is that it fails to address the nature of the threat. We know that the inky black, amorphous tendril-monster used to be one of the "beings who are Solar" (also not explained), but we don’t know how or why the transformation took place. The monster never speaks for itself, so we don’t really know why it is seemingly trying to destroy all of human history. Is it related to the idea that the Sovereigns are secretly the cause for sickness or strife in this reality? Is the monster merely seeking to accomplish the same ends achieved by Magnus and Samson (to erase the Sovereigns from history), only through cruder means? I can accept that perhaps Fawkes was trying to convey more of a "force of nature" type threat than a personal one, but on some level it would have been helpful to know why any of these events are taking place.
I’m also not sure that time traveling was handled particularly well in this series. When telling a time travel story, there is always an inherent risk of creating a paradox with the storytelling: you can’t go back in time to change history, because it would have already been changed (or because doing so would destroy existence). In this story, it would seem that Magnus could not travel back in time to prepare for this crisis and execute his plan, because doing so would completely erase him from history thus preventing him from traveling back in time. I also felt there were additional time travel elements that were introduced but not paid off, such as Solar’s trip to the past for Christmas tea with Magnus. I understand that the point of this story is that Magnus somehow created a way to erase individuals from history and perhaps they feel this explanation negates any concerns about paradoxes. Reality and history have literally been reformed. However, doesn’t this explanation further trivialize the events of this series? For all intents and purposes, did these events really take place outside of Samson’s memory?
As I previously mentioned, it’s very clear through this issue that the point of this story is to explain or justify the launch of the three solo series. First off, I’m not sure it was necessary to tell this kind of story if you want to reboot the characters. The Gold Key characters have been rebooted and re-imagined many times, and they’ve never needed an explanation for why the characters are different than in previous incarnations. This is the type of story a publisher would tell in order to achieve massive retcons with an “in-continuity” story explanation, but it’s not like there were ongoing series for these characters that needed to be retconed. They introduced a brand new continuity in issue 1 of this series, just so they could immediately rewrite it and launch solo series featuring even more drastic re-imaginings. In addition, they don’t really explain why the characters would change so drastically when they are sheared off of our reality into their own pocket realities. But my biggest complaint in this department would be, why is there no solo series for Solar spinning out of this story? They put a key in Solar’s skull just like the rest of the Sovereigns, but it’s unclear what happens to her/him/them when the mcguffin machine does its job. Are they implying that Solar was completely obliterated because she/he was the enemy? Wouldn’t Solar change completely in a new reality just like the other three Sovereigns, or was she/he completely irredeemable at that point? Perhaps if some of these issues were more clearly explained, it would make up for the lack of clarity in other aspects of the story.
I will give credit to the art team again. This issue revisits many of the most compelling environments of the series and they all look great: lava pits, a ruined moon, post-apocalyptic tribes. Desjardins also did a great job with some of the trippier moments: the crystalline structure of our reality, and the shafts of light enveloping the transforming Sovereigns. There are some really attractive pages in here, with beautiful lines and colors. The art has been consistently strong and occasionally brilliant throughout the series and it helps to bolster the overall enjoyment even in spite of my complaints with the writing.
I won’t say much about the Doctor Spektor backup story, as usual. Frankly, I’ll be glad to get into full-length issues of this series, because so far I have no idea where this story is going. It’s mainly been to establish the character of Spektor, who is generally kind of sh**ty: lazy, deadbeat, sneaky, weasely. His main motivation to this point has been to get money by any means necessary (except for honest work). But lazy do-nothings aren’t great for narrative storytelling, so they had better start moving the plot along when the series begins in earnest. I’m also slightly concerned about the direction of the series if Frankenstein is the dude’s roommate. However, I did enjoy the art more in this installment. The art really shines when they lean into the abstract and expressionistic vibe to convey a tone that is both gritty and fantastical.
Ultimately I’m a bit disappointed by this issue as a resolution to the series. I feel there are significant ideas that they set up that were not really paid off, as well as some fundamental questions about the premise and plot. I do appreciate when writers go for an ambitious story, and perhaps there was just not enough room to tell the full story while also launching the solo series. I do think it’s somewhat unfortunate that this series wasn’t allowed to stand more on its own, especially since I’m not fully sold on the Turok and Spektor series. This story showed real promise and offered a tantalizing glimpse at these characters, but unfortunately I don't think they fully stuck the landing.
Sovereigns art by Johnny Desjardins
Sovereigns colors by Mohan
Doc Spektor written by Aubrey Sitterson
Doc Spektor art by Dylan Burnett
Doc Spektor colos by Triona T. Farrell
Published by Dynamite
I really enjoyed the first four issues of this five-part mini-series. The art has been very solid and the story seemed epic and intricate. Admittedly there were certain plot elements that I didn’t fully understand, but I optimistically assumed that they would tie things up by the end of the story. It’s always been fairly obvious what the ultimate intent of the mini-series would be, which is to launch the three new solo series: Magnus, Turok, and Doctor Spektor. I was somewhat disappointed that they fail to address many of the significant questions of this story, choosing to focus instead on explaining the origin of the solo series. Ultimately it hurts the enjoyability of the entire mini-series and prevents it from standing on its own.
One of the major failures of the story is that it fails to address the nature of the threat. We know that the inky black, amorphous tendril-monster used to be one of the "beings who are Solar" (also not explained), but we don’t know how or why the transformation took place. The monster never speaks for itself, so we don’t really know why it is seemingly trying to destroy all of human history. Is it related to the idea that the Sovereigns are secretly the cause for sickness or strife in this reality? Is the monster merely seeking to accomplish the same ends achieved by Magnus and Samson (to erase the Sovereigns from history), only through cruder means? I can accept that perhaps Fawkes was trying to convey more of a "force of nature" type threat than a personal one, but on some level it would have been helpful to know why any of these events are taking place.
I’m also not sure that time traveling was handled particularly well in this series. When telling a time travel story, there is always an inherent risk of creating a paradox with the storytelling: you can’t go back in time to change history, because it would have already been changed (or because doing so would destroy existence). In this story, it would seem that Magnus could not travel back in time to prepare for this crisis and execute his plan, because doing so would completely erase him from history thus preventing him from traveling back in time. I also felt there were additional time travel elements that were introduced but not paid off, such as Solar’s trip to the past for Christmas tea with Magnus. I understand that the point of this story is that Magnus somehow created a way to erase individuals from history and perhaps they feel this explanation negates any concerns about paradoxes. Reality and history have literally been reformed. However, doesn’t this explanation further trivialize the events of this series? For all intents and purposes, did these events really take place outside of Samson’s memory?
As I previously mentioned, it’s very clear through this issue that the point of this story is to explain or justify the launch of the three solo series. First off, I’m not sure it was necessary to tell this kind of story if you want to reboot the characters. The Gold Key characters have been rebooted and re-imagined many times, and they’ve never needed an explanation for why the characters are different than in previous incarnations. This is the type of story a publisher would tell in order to achieve massive retcons with an “in-continuity” story explanation, but it’s not like there were ongoing series for these characters that needed to be retconed. They introduced a brand new continuity in issue 1 of this series, just so they could immediately rewrite it and launch solo series featuring even more drastic re-imaginings. In addition, they don’t really explain why the characters would change so drastically when they are sheared off of our reality into their own pocket realities. But my biggest complaint in this department would be, why is there no solo series for Solar spinning out of this story? They put a key in Solar’s skull just like the rest of the Sovereigns, but it’s unclear what happens to her/him/them when the mcguffin machine does its job. Are they implying that Solar was completely obliterated because she/he was the enemy? Wouldn’t Solar change completely in a new reality just like the other three Sovereigns, or was she/he completely irredeemable at that point? Perhaps if some of these issues were more clearly explained, it would make up for the lack of clarity in other aspects of the story.
I will give credit to the art team again. This issue revisits many of the most compelling environments of the series and they all look great: lava pits, a ruined moon, post-apocalyptic tribes. Desjardins also did a great job with some of the trippier moments: the crystalline structure of our reality, and the shafts of light enveloping the transforming Sovereigns. There are some really attractive pages in here, with beautiful lines and colors. The art has been consistently strong and occasionally brilliant throughout the series and it helps to bolster the overall enjoyment even in spite of my complaints with the writing.
I won’t say much about the Doctor Spektor backup story, as usual. Frankly, I’ll be glad to get into full-length issues of this series, because so far I have no idea where this story is going. It’s mainly been to establish the character of Spektor, who is generally kind of sh**ty: lazy, deadbeat, sneaky, weasely. His main motivation to this point has been to get money by any means necessary (except for honest work). But lazy do-nothings aren’t great for narrative storytelling, so they had better start moving the plot along when the series begins in earnest. I’m also slightly concerned about the direction of the series if Frankenstein is the dude’s roommate. However, I did enjoy the art more in this installment. The art really shines when they lean into the abstract and expressionistic vibe to convey a tone that is both gritty and fantastical.
Ultimately I’m a bit disappointed by this issue as a resolution to the series. I feel there are significant ideas that they set up that were not really paid off, as well as some fundamental questions about the premise and plot. I do appreciate when writers go for an ambitious story, and perhaps there was just not enough room to tell the full story while also launching the solo series. I do think it’s somewhat unfortunate that this series wasn’t allowed to stand more on its own, especially since I’m not fully sold on the Turok and Spektor series. This story showed real promise and offered a tantalizing glimpse at these characters, but unfortunately I don't think they fully stuck the landing.
A Look Inside
