String #5 // Review
Yoon is in the back of a big, yellow van when the door slides open. There’s a masked man ready to kidnap her. She’s not ready for it. He’s a hell of a lot bigger than she is, so he’s not going to have a hell of a lot of trouble hauling her in. She’s going to be some trouble for him in String #5. Writer Paul Tobin continues his supernatural crime drama with artist Carlos Javier Olivares and colorist Sara Colella. Tobin and company keep the forward momentum of the action going with a steady heartbeat as the story draws to a close.
She’s tied-up. Her captor decides to take his mask off It’s been itching him all day. It doesn’t really matter of Yoon sees his face. He’s going to kill her, so it’s not like she’ll be able to identify him or anything like that. It’s a perfect opportunity for him to let her know why he’s going to kill her. She knows him. The guy’s name is Finch Williams. She saw him at the party. And since she’s got some kind of clairvoyance, she knows a little bit about the darkness that he’s involved in.
Life is cheap in crime fiction. It can be really, really difficult to ttruly measure the value of a life in a world of guns, bullets, vendettas and so on. With Yoon’s ability to see the black strings involved in the murder of life,Tobin is able to palpably ground the value of human life in a clear and present fvisual that also serves as a really important element in the drama. It’s sharp paranormal drama that is deeply rooted in human emotion. Tobin brings it to a close quite gracefully.
Olivares’ messy sketchiness continues to roll through the series. The anger and aggression scratches itself across the page as the drama finally draws to a close at the end of the series. Yoon maintains a very subtle and nuanced emotional life even drawn in over her had as she is in this final issue of the series. It can feel remarkably ugly in places, but Colella’s colors find a stylishness around the edges of everything that maintains a solid physical appeal to it all throughout the entirety of the final chapter of the series. The visuals end-up being pretty remarkable stuff now that the plot has had a chance to play out the main conflict.
Tobin and company maintain a tightly-woven plot from beginning to end with an exteded cast that has some very interesting psycholigical quirks. It all feels so well-composed from beginning to end, though it might not have felt like much in the early issues. Tobin and company build-up a lot of narrative momentum over the course of the first several issues in the series that finds a graceful way to draw to a close at issue’s end. It’s sharp stuff from beginning to end. There might not be a whole lot of originality in the periphery of the plot, but Tobin and company have delivered some very likeable characters to the page and that goes a long way towards bringing it all to a satisfying close.
