Skinbreaker #6 // Review
The exiled chieftain is pursued by his own people. He has disgraced them. They might truly mean him harm. He hurls a spear at them. They assume that his aim has dulled with his old age, but perhaps he could never truly harm his own people...even if it truly appears as though they are read to put an end to his life. The exiled chieftain finds himself in even more danger as his saga continues in Skinbreaker #6. Writer Robert Kirkman, artist David Finch and colorist Annalisa Leoni continue an exploration of primal peril over the edge of extinction. It’s quite engaging.
The disgraced chieftain is chased to a waterfall. He is to be killed. He knows this. That doesn’t mean that he has to accept it. The old ways are insufficient to handle the current situation. The old chieftain was looking for ways to make life better and easier. There would be more food. There would be less work. He’s trying to level with the one who is looking to kill him, but it seems unlikely to work...especially when he’s pushed over the edge of the waterfall and into a much more primal danger than the one that had been facing him in the form of his would-be executioner.
Kirkman plays a bit with cliché in a way of that makes it feel a little bit more interesting, and original. The coming generation of leadership finds the wisdom of the older generation to be blasphemous. Typically, it's the new generation that has to wait around for the older generation to die off before it can enact the change that needs to be made in order to adapt to a new situations. Kirkman invert this by having me disgraced leader be the one who was looking to adapt. This creates an interesting dynamic that increases dramatic tension, and a very interesting fantasy drama.
It’s visually stunning. Finch and Leoni do some jaw-droppingly beautiful work throughout the issue. Finch renders the world of the series in an overwhelming amount of detail. All too often the amount of line work that Finch is putting in can create too much noise to be terribly dynamic. Finch brings grace and poise to the a heavily-rendered style of dizzyingly labyrinthine lines. Leoni’s rich colors add considerable atmosphere to the visuals...cutting the harshness of Finch’s heavily-wrought line-work considerably.
A story like Skinbreaker runs the risk of rolling into a whole bunch of different directions that would be less than appealing. Kirkman and Company seem to be solidly, moving the narrative forward in a way that feels like it's going to continue in a primal direction that might be simultaneously familiar and novel at the same time. However, if they choose to move too far from the immediate stresses of the tribe, in question, the serial could get really tedious really quickly. Kirkman and Company definitely have a solid grounding with the first six issues of the series.
