Invincible Ed #2, the

Posted: Tuesday, February 11, 2003
By: Darren Schroeder

Creator(s): Ryan Woodward
Publishers: Summertime Comics
From: USA
Price: $3:50 (US)

Last time Ed and the local bully were at the centre of a plot to save the universe. Thing is, the bully got all the aggressive powers and Ed just gets to be invincible. All the folks at school know about Ed's new found ability thanks to his walking away from a disagreement with a 18 wheeler truck and the explosion of his late model VW beetle. Even so, Ed still has some lessons to learn

The area that this book really impresses is Ryan's artwork which really is a pleasure to look at. Fun layouts with appealing character designs. All this is coloured by Mike Garcia with a crisp look. It appears Mike may be colouring straight from Ryan's Pencils, with the sketching showing though to give the pages a unique look.

The plotting needs a bit more work. A great looking two page spread is used to signal the passage of time, but it isn't really clear what sort of time period it covers, weeks or months? Or perhaps it's a dream sequence. I'm not sure, and that sort of uncertainty doesn't help get the story told. We also get some very creaky "young student/old master" clichés which really should have been put out to pasture in the mid nineties. The book ends off with what should be a heart felt tragedy, but the victim was so poorly fleshed out we have to take Ed's word that she was worth crying over.

This is a title that looks great but lacks the certain something in the writing which would draw the reader in.

In a Word: Routine.



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