Miracle Force #16

Posted: Tuesday, January 31, 2006
By: Steve Saville

Cover of Miracle Force #16 Creator(s): Jerry Smith
Publishers: Self Published
From: USA
Price: $2 (US)

A very busy little comic this one. At times maybe a little too busy. Everything moves along at a cracking pace to the extent of leaving the reader a little breathless by the end. Breathless and a little confused.

The problem is there is often just a little too much going on. The richness of subplot, at times, overpowers the narrative structure of the comic as a whole. It does verge toward the confusing as the insecurities of the main characters seems to be of greater import than the main storyline. These insecurities centre on how the various super hero type characters perceive they are seen by the opposite sex.

The air of confusion is not helped by the fact that there are quite a large number of important characters to get to know in 16 pages, I admit here that this may be due to the fact that the title has been going for some time now but this is the first that I have had the chance to read, so the problem may be mine. All of the characters are interesting and worthy of development but there are eight of them, all seem to have issues and this is only a 16 page comic, maybe it a case of too much of a good thing.

It is not a major issue more of a feeling of imbalance that leads to slight lack of cohesion in the comic generally. None of this detracts from the feeling of fun that pervades Miracle Force, it is obvious that it was fun to create and this makes it fun to read. With some tightening up in the writing Miracle Force will easily become an even more satisfying experience.

The fairly wordy introduction certainly captures what it is like to be a small press comic creator. The sense of frustration is well described and will strike a resonant chord with all small independent comic creators who take the time to track down and read a copy of Miracle Force. It might not be perfect but there is enough here to make me eager to track down #17 when it appears, even if it is to see if Diminutive Lass ever gets nipples.

In a Word: Head-spinning.



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