Writers: Christopher Golden & Tom Sniegoski
Artists: Paul Azaceta, Ron Riley (colours)
Publisher: Boom! Studios
So this is the comic I’ve been hearing people rave about. You know, I kind of hate it when I hear loads of great things about a book and it fails to deliver in the manner expected. I’m not saying Talent is a bad series. Oh, no. No way. It’s pretty good, actually. It’s just not as awesome as many people say it is. At least, that’s how I feel about it…
I haven’t read the first issue, but I read issues #2, #3 and #4 one after another (this way I don’t look like a complete idiot if I screw something up… yeah, yeah, real funny). The plot itself is pretty damn cool; and, if I dare say, original. Nicholas Dane is a passenger on a flight that explodes. He survives and ends up in the hospital (once again, I didn’t read the first issue; correct me if I’m wrong). A couple of guys attempt to whack Dane while he’s trying to figure out how the hell he survived. Said guys get their asses kicked by this rather unassuming fellow, who has no prior knowledge of fighting. This, of course, is strange. Later, Dane is labelled a terrorist (because he survives a plane exploding in midair… personally, I’d be inclined to label him a circus freak, but that’s just me). Nicolas Dane runs, probably because he’s afraid of going to Gitmo or the Negative Zone or something. Can’t say I blame him. What?
Anyways, Mr. Dane begins to discover that he has memories that aren’t his and that he can do stuff he was unable to do before. “Interesting,” was my first thought. Various characters are brought into the mix as it’s revealed that Dane is harbouring the talents and last wishes of those who perished in the plane crash. He also discovers that someone (a flight attendant, presumably) is talking to him, telling him that’s he’s supposed to be an agent for “the Balance.” Along the way, some folks start hunting him, including a cute sociopathic couple by the name of Payne & Abel. That pretty much brings us to issue #4. I don’t want to get too detailed, as you may not have read this issue.
Now, I want to take a few seconds to go over some things. First off, for those of you who gripe about “decompression” and how it’s ruining comics, then Talent is for you! Talk about compression. Yeesh. Sometimes there are so many words in a panel/ on a page that the picture(s) become merely incidental. Not that I’m complaining, because I really disliked the art. Not my bag, really. It’s too simple for me; not that I mind simple & very basic illustrations… I just guess I was expecting something a bit better (or more alluring, maybe). I suppose it could have been worse; I mean, I don’t feel the art detracts from the excellent story in any way, but the lines are thick, the colours light and forgettable, the characters are hardly noticeable in any way and basically... well, I can’t remember. I didn’t hate the illustrations, if that’s any consolation. I think they were going for a certain style here (“old look”?) and it didn’t really jive with me. No worries, though, as many of you may really like it. In addition to all that, I was left feeling this should have been spread out over at least six issues. It’s not just the whole “compression vs. decompression” bullshit, either. I just wanted to see the story play out over a longer period of time. Of course, I’m sure there’s some good reason why Talent’s first run was four issues. My guess is that it’s a budgetary thing.
Okay, so with all that noise aside, Talent #4 is quite fun and satisfying if you’ve been following the series. We get more insight into the cabal of Cardinals that pursue Dane, discover some things about the two agents hunting him, and Krause continues to be a really cool villain. Nicolas Dane manages to tie up some loose ends for his “memories”: he finds out just how much of a balancing force he really is, and in the end we are left with an opening to more of his adventures. All in all, a great closing issue, technical gripes aside.
This title has a great story, and I certainly hope they do more with it. I know it says “The End” on the last panel of the final page, but more with this storyline would be great. Also, though I felt the ending was good, it did leave a lot of elements to be explored in the future with Dane, Payne & Abel, the Cardinals, the “balance” and so on. Overall, I think this is a terrific
story marred by some technical problems and ho-hum art (but, like I said, that’s just my opinion; I try not to let it detract form the overall score too much). I don’t think this is the “greatest thing EVER” like I’ve heard some people say, but I still recommend it, especially if one is in the mood for a good adventure tale with a supernatural twist. A lot of things are left unexplained, and so the writers did something right when they made me want to know what’s going to happen next and why. Regardless of how my intro paragraph sounds, I still like Talent quite a bit.To sum up my ramblings, Talent #4 is a good closer to a mini-series that has a marvellous story and fine characters hindered a bit by some “over-compression,” needing to be a couple more issues, and lacklustre (but not bad, mind you) art. It’s worth a read, if you ask me.
What did you think of this book?
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