So our third issue opens with another one of those weird brief history segments, this time on Persuader. From what I see, she has some authority issues stemming from when her Dad left and becomes an assassin. Then eventually kills her Mum... or something.
We move on to a sequence with the present day Persuader discussing with Clock King if Terry (Dreadbolt) will really kill his father. We also learn that Persuader is playing Team with the Terror Titans because Clock King promises her that she'll get to see her Dad again.
We then cut to a scene of Terry with his father. The argue a lot about their jobs, their costumes, the special effects studio and we get the whole clichéd 'My mother is dead!' 'You may be born of my blood, but you are no son of mine!'. After Terry is called a sissy, an ongoing theme of his character throughout the miniseries, he attacks his Dad. After a short fight, Terry gets over powered pretty easily by his Dad and as his Dad goes to walk away, Terry begs 'please'. This was actually a really heart wrenching scene when I read it, although probably because as I read it Adagio For Strings by Samuel Barber came on my iPod and it made the whole thing seem a lot more dramatic than it really was.
Midway through the fight we go to Clock King's secret lair I guess where apparently nothing ages. Here we see the Titan's being brainwashed with headphones attatched to containers of liquid...I don't know. Copperhead then sets up this theme of this issue of 'Where is Dreadbolt?'.
Next we see Tnteena in hospital. Thankfully her fingers have been reatched because without them she couldn't use her powers, apparently. However they have got infected so Copperhead is supposed to look after her. This is apparently a mission of grave importance, Clock King just wont say why. Sounds like an excuse if you ask me.
The next scene, I don't really get. Desaad is keeping humans in what looks like leather catsuits. Clock King claims them for his own, which horrorfy's Desaad. Yeah I don't know.
We go back to the tournament. Two fights over one two paged thread. Considering the tournament is what they keep advertising they don't give it to much screen time. What I did notice though is the character 'Hardrock' is just the Thing coloured grey. Copyright infringement anyone?
We then learn the Star-Spangled Kid is managing to resist the mind control through his 'American Spirit'... Oh God. Ravager then begs Clock King for answers, about what, I don't really know. He tells her, win or lose, if she fights the champion of the Arena, she'll get her answers. Desaad and the gang aren't very happy about this but Clock King doesn't care. Then Terry returns.
We then get a flashback of Terry killing his Dad, this may have been more powerful or shocking if I understood what was going on. Terry's powers have yet to be explained. But so far it looks like he can shoot energy beams or maybe electricity. But he kills his Dad by phasing him half way through a wall. What.
Anyway we close the comic on a reveal that the champion of the arena is...Static Shock! Hey, a character I know?!
We're half way through and the comic is really close to just plain sucking. I don't know anything about the characters (those flashback things are useless). The comic is jumping all over the place everywhere so I find it very hard to care for each scene flashing before my eyes. And there seems set up for some big greater plot but we're half way through. Even if all the reveals happen next issue, it's gonna feel rushed as hell. And hell, I don't even know what they are meant to be revealing!
Our fourth issue opens with another of those weird flashbacks, this time of Copperhead. From the page I guess he killed his baby brother, threatened to kills his parents but ran away from home instead before becoming a rent boy and killing his clients.
We then go straight into our fight with Static Shock and Ravager. Clock King asks his Terror Titans if they are enjoying the fight and we get some foreshadowing as Disruptor flirts with Terry. Static Shock wins the fight, but then goes out of control and they have to tranquillise him.
We then see they've tried a 7 serums on the Star-Spangled Kid and still not managed to brainwash him. Oh the power of that, 'American Spirit' of his, eh?! We then learn Persuader's Dad is on the way before Ravager bursts in. This then leads to Clock King and Ravager kissing and then I dunno, dry humping, having sex? It isn't very clear.
For some reason from here the comic turns into a softcore porno. Disruptor arrives in Terry's room in a skimpy outfit. Terry is drinking alone and she decides to join him. They flirt for a while. Yeah it's pointless, next scene!
Next we see Copperhead looking after Teena, these guys suck at being villains! After that tiny scene we cut back to the aftermath of Terry and 'Angel's' sexual encounter. They fight over the fact that Disruptor just slept with Dreadbolt to trick him into killing Ravager because she's butthurt over Clock King dumping her (when did this happen?) It acts like a six piece miniseries, but this ties into things in other books, at least I assume that's what it's doing and it didn't just forget to add scenes. Anyway this all leads to a small fist fight that looks like something straight of out an ecchi manga. Pointless, move on!
We go back to the tournament, considering this is what the comic sold itself on, this has little purpose either. Moving on!
The next scene is admittedly really really good. Elise, (the Persuader) gets reunited with her father, in a heart tugging if not slightly clichéd scene. And then out of nowhere, Clock King kills him! He seems like the only proper villain in the whole thing. He gives a rather awesome speech about how he wants his Terror Titans to be rid of feelings like Hope and Love. This segways nicely into a scene of the Star-Spangled Kid finally being brainwashed. The issue then closes with the Clock King claiming it's 'time to begin'. Time to begin?! We're over half way through the fucking series! What the hell has the point of the last four issues been then?!
Overall this issue sucks! For a six part mini series I expected something tight and well paced, considering they have a limited amount of space and yet we get this issue which is made almost entirely up of filler. Yeah the softcore bits were nice, but I could find better examples without it interrupting my story. Here's hoping it picks up for the last two issues, who knows, it still has a chance to blow me away.
Think About It!
-Locke.
Think About It!
-Locke.
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