Final Boss #11 // Review
Rabak is tied to a chair. He’s covered in blood. Tommy’s quite upset about this as he walks into the room. Of course...Tommy’s covered in blood too, but there’s a good hcance that most of it isn’t his own as he’s been the victor in a combat. Nevertheless, things aren't quite as good for Rabak...and he’s family. So Tommy isn’t feeling so good at the beginning of Final Boss #11. Writer/artist Tyler Kirkham continues a silly, little video game-inspired action serial with the aid of artist David Miller and colorist Ifansyah Noor. Things seem to be a little bit more coherent with the series having reached the 11th issue. But it's still not very good.
Naturally, Tommy is quite upset. He's going to want to do something about the situation. So he's looking for revenge. Of course, he's in a position to be able to deliver on that vengeance. These are very powerful warrior by this point. Nevertheless, the villains involved are that much more powerful than any that he's encountered so far. There's a little question that Tommy's revenge will come through. He's going to have to sacrifice something along the way, though.
Kirkham provides a salad inspiration for Tommy to get bad ass with guns. And heavy arm movements and things like that. I evidently he had been military. Evidently there had been people who had died. And so when Rabak dies, she's triggered. Then when he gets triggered, he bolts a lot of triggers. Things blow up. Not exactly a terribly deep premise. But then it's not terribly well executed either. The intensity of the situation never really emerges from the lack of emotional engagement in the run of the series. So much of the real estate on the page is taken up by just bloodshed and violence. There isn't enough emotional engagement to really deliver any kind of profound connection to the reader. It just seems like a lot of aggression.
And, to be fair, the aggression looks pretty good on the page. Lots of grimacing. Lots of blood. Lots of explosions. But without more meaningful emotional into things, it all sort of blurred together. It never really has the chance to be much more than gratuitous action but never really found an emotional footing. It's just muscle bound to people and blood in the sound effects and things. It's OK. For what it is. But even the action isn't delivered to the page in a way that feels particularly powerful.
Once again: it becomes very apparent that if Kirkham could find some way to bring the action to the page in a way that feels like a justification for the rest of the issue, it would be really cool. Mindless action can be a lot of fun if it's executed and brought to the page in a way that feels interesting. Kirkham isn't doing that. It's all delivered to the page in a way that feels very familiar. And not in a good way. It's just echoing things that have happened before with other companies in other instances.
