The Forged #11 // Review
Victory and her team have moved into position. They’ve made their decision. They’re looking to topple the Empress. Of course...they’re taking-on the resources of an entire empire. So they’re going to be up against a powerful force. One would hav to be crazy to square-off against anyone with power like that. Of course...it IS possible that Victory and her squad know what they’re doing. Aggression explodes in The Forged #11. The capable writing team of Eric Trautmann and Gregg Rucka continue a fun story that is dynamically brought to page and panel by artist Mike Henderson.
The Empress’ forces have impressive tech. Every opposing unit that Victory and her crew face looks like a walking tank. Victory’s crew are a lot more maneuverable and agile, though. And they seem perfectly well-protected by their own tech. Still: it’s not like they aren’t in a hell of a lot of danger. Elsewhere...Hap has enters a virtual world. A synthetic being asks if she wants to conceive offspring that will join The Order. It’s a bit awkward at first, but Hap is going to have to have a really important conference with an evidently powerful entity. It just might be able to help.
Squad-based sci-fi action is a great deal of fun...particularly when there’s weird entities and weird tech involved. Contemporary warfare is going to seem kind of boring by contrast. But having individuals with different personalities, all engaging in the same opposing forces ends up being a lot of fun when it's handled well. And certainly Trautmann and Rucka focus on the fund and the weird in a way that keeps it all interesting. They also keep the action moving really quickly through a number of different scenes that all build on each each other in different ways.
Henderson’s overall designed for all of the heroes continues to show quite a bit of variation between them. They're all on the same team, but they're all very distinct. The action that flows through the center of the page is energized with powerful kinetic motion. Everything seems to be shooting across the page. And it all seems to be shooting across the page in a way that really advances the story. The visuals can be quite impressive in the midst of combat. But there's also a degree of energy and more subtle moments of drama.
Trautmann and Rucka have brought together some very interesting dynamics in a science fiction fantasy action story. It's really difficult to bring across the full scale of what's going on, though. There's a tremendous amount at stake in the series. You wouldn't really necessarily know that just to watch any individual scene. It's often really difficult to fully envision the full scale and scope of an epic space fantasy series. Is particularly difficult when a series embraces the overwhelming scope of a series like The Forged. Trautmann and Rucka are telling a fun story. It would be cool to be able to get a better look at the epically cosmic scope of the series on a larger scale.
