ElfQuest: The Final Quest #6

Writer – Richard Pini, Wendy Pini
Artist – Wendy Pini
Colours – Sonny Strait

It is in this issue that we finally learn the final fate of Kahvi many years after and from her own lips so to speak, even though she has passed to the Veil in the telling of this story.  The tale is a sad one, a story peppered with violence and vengeance, tenacity and even a little humour.   Ultimately though, it sends a note of finality on the subject and on her, knowing that the only stories we will ever see her in are ones that take place in the past.  Also in this book, Wendy Pini explores Ember’s grief, for grief it is after all the trials and tribulations she has been put through the last number of issues.  There is a moment in the book which is truly moving, one that involves Cutter just holding his daughter as if she were still a small child.  It is the sight of this that finally makes you realize that Cutter is getting older even though he still looks the same as he always does.  He has aged and when you think back over all of the adventures he has had, it has been a long time since that first one to the present he finds himself in.  There is now wisdom and temperance where once there was exuberance and foolhardiness.  It might have taken a while to get to this point, but when you see Cutter hold Ember in her sadness, you come to see him for the father and the Chief that he is.  Wendy Pini delves into the past while looking forward this issue, but not once was it anything you could call dull.  Instead, it makes you realize why you love ElfQuest in the first place.

5 out of 5

Arkham Manor #2

Writer – Gerry Duggan
Artist – Shawn Crystal
Colours – Dave McCaig

Victor Zsasz has escaped and Batman has gone undercover in the new Arkham Asylum to find out where he is and what he is up to.  But things are not going exactly as planned when Zsasz kills an inmate and the only person found in the room is Bruce in his new identity.  The second issue of this new Batman title is much better than the first, simply for the fact that it does not spoil anything that is going on in other books at the moment.  Duggan does a good job writing our Caped Crusader and it is fun to see the man pretending to be a criminal in his own home, a home that has been transformed into a prison for the insane.  There are a lot of familiar faces in the asylum, and many that are not and looking at it, the book has endless opportunities for story ideas involving any number of them.  What will make things very intriguing going forward is the fact that the asylum sits on top of the Batcave.  There will obviously be problems with this situation and is something that you can see coming from a mile away.  Shawn Crystal’s artwork is a great fit for the book, giving it a rough and hard-edged look that really melds with the grittiness of the story.  It is not the best bat-book on the stands, nor even the best out of the recent launches, but it is a fairly solid read that will hopefully only get better.

3 out of 5