Sonata #10 // Review
A young adventurer needs her friend healed. To do that, she’s going to have to have him brought back from the dead. She’ll learn a lesson about some history along the way in Sonata #10. Writer David Hine continues a deep dive into world-building in a backstory-heavy adventure brought to the page by artist Brian Haberlin. The backstory of the world of Sonata sluggishly moves across the page in text-heavy panels that occasionally manage a bit of visual punch here and there before the story plods its way to the final panels of a disappointingly un-fantastic chapter of fantasy.
Treen is dead. He’s a big guy. Sonata is carrying him to people who will be able to help him. She’s not certain who to trust, but she hasn’t exactly got much to lose. It should come as no surprise that Treen is brought back from the dead, but is he going to be terribly happy about it? And what is exactly IS the nature of the gods of the planet and the nature of their connection with Treen’s race? All this and more is explored in an issue that doesn’t have a whole lot going on in the present.
Hine clearly has a really detailed world constructed beyond the panels of Sonata. In places, Sonata’s world feels breathtaking and fantastic, but here the most potent revelations on the background of the series fall flat in bland exposition accompanied by illustrations. Hine hasn’t allowed for enough of a connection with the characters to make the background of the world they exist in feel all that interesting, which is a pity because the history in question carries a HUGE amount of potential to be interesting. Had Hine been a bit more patient in revealing that backstory that is rudely thrust into this issue, it might have been much more impressive. As it is, this feels like a great amount of plot that’s being clumsily rushed to the page.
Haberlin’s capabilities with nuanced drama fall a bit flat here as he isn’t given a whole lot of room to let them out. There’s too much story to tell. Thankfully there IS a bit of intensity in the fantastic with Haberlin’s talent for perspective with immense gods contrasted against smaller mortals and those of Treen’s race, which are somewhere in between. Haberlin’s visuals, which have always had a bit of H.R. Geiger’s influence lurking around the edges of the panels, feel VERY Geigery in this issue, which gives the world of Sonata a particularly familiar feel this issue.
This is a major stumble for a series that’s been pretty good thus far. Hine and Haberlin should have no trouble recovering in the months ahead. Still, it isn’t very reassuring that revelations on the backstory of the series, which really should have had more impact feel as flat as they do here. Hine and Haberlin’s story may have a larger, more sweeping momentum in issues to come that might reveal greater wisdom in the overall composition of this issue. Still, it’s hard to imagine a path that could make this issue feel more satisfying in the months to come.
