DIE: Loaded #8 // Review
Isabelle was in the realm of 13. They could always go there. Or they could go after him. Of course...they’re in a game. They’ve read the rules. The rules didn’t come with a map, though. What kind of a fantasy game doesn’t come with a map? Well...it’s still in Beta testing...which doesn’t make it any less dangerous, of course. And it doesn’t change the fact that they’re lost in DIE: Loaded #8. The party is pursued by monsters as it runs into a realm of piracy in the latest from writer Kieron Gillen and artist Stephanie Hans.
Really, all they have to do is follow the coast. They are in no immediate danger. And if they follow the cost of power enough, they're definitely going to run into an inn. They seem to have come into a place that is at least partially inspired byTreasure Island. So at least it's kind of familiar. It may still be trout, but a baby survived this long and there's a good chance that they might be able to find what they're looking for. There are, however, a great many other forces and factors at work which may yet disturb their momentum.
Gillen has a hell of a lot going on in the larger scheme of things with respect to this series. So much of it is a lost in the machinery of the backstory and it doesn't really seem too terribly interesting. It's really the drama that's happening on the page at the moment that seems a lot more interesting. However, the narrative hesitant tendency to flip around restlessly and from page to page. Just want to see it feels like it's starting to build up some kind of gravity, the overall inertia of the issue holds things in a completely different direction and suddenly the issue finds itself in a different scene.
It looks pretty, though. There's a dreamy fantasy about the visuals that continues to move things along. The golden age of piracy looks good on the page in the hands of Hans. It mixes well with the rest of the sword and sorcery fantasy that's going on. The drama is really bound to the age in a very clever way. Though there isn't a whole lot of action on the page, there is more than enough to keep everything moving. The use of color and shadow create a three Mimi asthma that's really fun to hang out in.
Gillen’s work would be so much more interesting if he could settle down into a single scene for long enough to make it work. This is kind of an ongoing thing for him across a lot of his work. Scenes don't really feel solidly grounded enough. He's always trying to tell a story that's much bigger than the one that's right there on the page. So many of his issues feel like highlights to a much longer work that will never get finished. It's really frustrating because so much of it seems so interesting.
