Blood Squad Seven #10 // Review
War-torn Ozai City. Somewhere in the Middle East. There are U.S. forces involved in the conflict. It's a mess. Some of the mess might have been brought by the US. And some of that mess might involve superpowers. There's a group that's going to try to hold it all together. But there's no telling whether or not they'll be able to do so in Blood Squad Seven #10. Writer Joe Casey continues his super-powered war story with artist Paul Fry and colorist Francesco Segala. The latest issue in the series has a bit more sophistication than previous issues. Still a central focus that is compelling enough to share it apart from everything else, though.
They managed to detonate the rocket before it gets within range to do any serious damage. There are still a hell of a lot of innocence who are dying, though. There's a lot of wreckage and rubble. There’s no question that Ozai City is in a really, really bad place right now. There are those in a situation room t the White House who are having something of a heated debate about it while conversation continues beneath the Pentagon. Things are bad and they are getting worse.
Casey keeps the pacing solidly respectable. Everything seems to be falling apart in a very impressive way. However, the overall intensity of it lacks a central focus. Call it the fog of war or something. Whatever it is, it lacks the kind of definition that would make for a really compelling horror story featuring people with superpowers. It's always very difficult to bring that across into the real world. Especially seeing as how modern warfare is as complicated as it is. It's very difficult to make it feel authentic when people are walking around and capable of flying and shooting concussive blast out of their hands and things like that.
Which is not to say that the action isn't compelling. It's very interesting to see it flow across the page.Fry does a respectable job of directing the flow of action across the page. The tighter, political drama that punctuates all of the action doesn't quite have the kind of visual appeal it could. It's very difficult to make a Talking Heads sort of conversation seem compelling on the page, even if it happens to be involved in matters of war, and the things of that nature. Not that it can't be done. In fact, some of the best drama in comic format is political drama. But it's very, very difficult to bring across with the right kind of intensity.
Were the basic premise to be just a little bit more striking and clear, the series could actually be really impressive. As it is, it seems like kind of a mess. Kind of a difficult thing to wait into. There's a lot going on. And not necessarily all terribly interesting. And it's not necessarily all terribly well rendered. But there's enough going on here to make it well worth the read. It's just not all that cle where it's heading. Or whether or not it's going to be worth seeing where it's going.
