Elfquest: Discovery

[annathepiper]

I finally decided I needed me a decent Elfquest icon too, to represent my Elfquest fandom. Those of you who know me from my years on Two Moons MUSH will be utterly unsurprised by my choice of EQ character to use, too. No caption, because Strongbow is an elf of as few words as possible.

This was brought on, of course, by my finally deciding to pick up the graphic novel version of the latest Elfquest story, Discovery. I hadn't been terribly moved to buy the individual issues, as I've posted about before. But when I flipped through the soft-bound graphic novel in the comic store yesterday, I figured what the heck.

Picoreview: Meh. The Pinis have done better, though there were a few aspects about it that I did actually like. Mostly interesting if you're an established Elfquest fan and you're also a completist.


This story's about two things overall: the Recognition of Sunstream and Brill, and the conflict of Snakeskin versus his father Surge for the chieftaincy of the Wavedancers. Neither of these plots really grabbed me overall, unfortunately. Both are territority the Pinis have covered before--and in the infinitely superior original Quest. In no particular order, here are my various reactions.

As a longstanding Strongbow fangirl, I am torn between kind of rolling my eyes and grinning at his and Moonshade's new cub. Part of me thinks she's just too twee, especially since she seems to have a problem with pronouns--the typical "me do this, me do that" thing that makes her sound like a cave-child. Or an idiot. Maybe I haven't hung around enough toddlers, but I have never, ever, ever heard a toddler talk that. The only possible explanation I can think of--I mean, aside from the cliched, cutesy "toddler dialogue" thing--for why she talks that way is maybe she hangs around Preservers too much. In which case Strongbow really ought to sit on her or something.

That said, I do think the panel of Strongbow and Moonshade's simultaneous bemused expressions while Chitter is dangling off her sire's neck and babbling at top speed is really rather priceless.

Surge looks a lot like Tyldak, only with fins instead of wings. And he acts a lot like Two-Spear, with that whole "I'm going to do something absolutely batshit for what I think is the good of the tribe" thing he's got going on.

That whole backstory thing with Sunstream getting his new name from flinging out magic to battle old pools of soured Madcoil-like power... apparently this happened in one of the Reader's Collections I haven't actually bothered to look at. I may need to go track that down now, because I think if I get that backstory, I'll be better able to buy the lad as an active, vital character. Right now I'm having a hard time overcoming my impression of him as this stick-thin, wispy boy who hangs around the Palace a lot in wrapstuff.

Did we ever actually see Sunstream's and Brill's spirits meeting on camera, originally? Because if we did, I totally missed that too. So I'm having a hard time buying their relationship; I feel like I came in on the middle of something, and I barely had enough time to see why they actually love one another before Recognition smacked them upside the head. Also, I'm still a bit leery about this whole idea of Recognition being able to strike even when Suntop's physical body is far, far away in the Palace in wrapstuff. But okay, fine, grownup Suntop is kind of cute. ;) Looks like Mender, vaguely. He'll be cuter once he fills out a bit and gets some maturity on him, though.

It's nice to see Timmain actually doing something, though it amuses me that she's still walking around naked.

Shuna's appearances are nice, and it was nice to see her meeting up with Bee. Nice also to see her getting a bit of the image of Brill that Sunstream showed all the others--just enough to give us the hint that even a human, if exposed to the Palace long enough, can have certain abilities awaken. And I actually sympathized with her more than I did the baby-minded Brill, but hey.

A very brief but welcome appearance by Ember, looking chieftess-ly and very, very hot. ;) Would have been nice to see her and some of her little offshoot tribe reacting to the news of Sunstream's Recognition, but I suppose there wasn't any time in the story for that.

I'm glad the Broken One got to be healed in the Palace--and become Reef again. Nice touch there.

The overall art style these days is striking me as vaguely cartoon-like, though still recognizably Wendy's. I find myself thinking that this might be what Elfquest looks like if we ever actually get that long-rumored movie. I suppose that wouldn't suck, though I still do miss the Donning-Starblaze days.

Comments

[morgie.livejournal.com]

Drat you. Now I'm going to have to find this, so I can at least flip through it once. ;)

[annathepiper]

My work here is done!

[otoselkie.livejournal.com]

I bought the first two issues, forgot the third, and wasn't interested enough to buy the fourth. I second a lot of what you said. While I'm glad to see the Pinis creating stuff again, I wasn't thrilled by the result. I wasn't extremely disappointed, but the result could have been way better.

[annathepiper]

Yeah. 'Cause Elfquest has been way better. I miss that Elfquest.

[irysangel.livejournal.com]

I felt the same way!

I think I kinda mini-reviewed (aka, 'bitched') on my journal a while back, because I bought all the individual issues.

My main gripe is that Wendy's art is becoming so stylized that 1) All the characters look alike and 2) All the expressions are the same.

I did love the Strongbow/Moonshade scenes, though. I'm still disappointed we don't get to see more Clearbrook/Treestump, since I'm a total shipper.

Lord, the fanfic I used to write about those two...*g*

[annathepiper]

Yeah, I get what you're saying about the "stylized" thing and the characters looking too much alike--I certainly noticed that with Surge, for example. I kept thinking "Tyldak with fins". And the finny healer guy who kept working on the Broken One? "Scouter with fins". I kept thinking of Mender when I was looking at Sunstream. Except when he went all rainbow-finny for Brill, of course; that part was actually pretty spectacular.

[tavella.livejournal.com]

All of the later-day Elfquest really hasn't done much for me. I really thought they hit a peak with the "Kings of the Broken Wheel" storyline -- the bit with Cutter making mark after mark on the tree as he takes the slow path through time just broke my heart -- and nothing after that really lived up.

[annathepiper]

There have been moments with some power behind 'em.... but yeah. By and large, the strongest storylines were the original Quest, with Kings running a close second.

[suzene.livejournal.com]

I actually quite liked Discovery, especially considering that it was a completely solo effort on Wendy's part in a lot less time than she used to have for the books. One thing that really bugged me, though:

After all the belittling Snakeskin put up with from Surge, after all of the manipulation and second-guessing, snarking, and generaly undermining of his confidence, it only now occurred to Snakeskin to hit the bastard? I've wanted to hit Surge since I first "met" him! ;)

[suzene.livejournal.com]

Ahem..."a solo effort on Wendy and Richard's parts".

I could try to reword that again, but it's going to sound vaguely filthy no matter what I say, so might as well have my purile chuckle while I can. ;)

[annathepiper]

Hee. ;)

[annathepiper]

Thinking about it, overall I don't think I really disliked it per se. I'm just being a grumpy dino EQ fan and missing the golden age, I think. ;)

And re: Snakeskin and Surge, yeah, really!

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

I suppose that wouldn't suck, though I still do miss the Donning-Starblaze days.

You know, I think that's 90% of why I don't read ElfQuest anymore. Yeah, the stories aren't what they were In The Old Days (oh lord, listen to me), but mostly it's that the art I fell in love with was the stuff *particularly* in the 3rd & 4th Starblaze GN. The elves were beautiful, yeah, but they weren't soft. They had flaws. Strongbow and Clearbrook both had hooked noses (oh god how I resent the change of Strongbow's nose); One-Eye wasn't *pretty*. Tyldak was /gorgeous/, but edged, etc etc etc. Sure, they've still all got the Hard Bodies and Amazing Figures, but now they look like if you poke them in the tummy they'd give the Pilsbury Dough Boy "hee-HEE!" The art is *pretty*, but it doesn't move me anymore. Oh well.

[annathepiper]

Yeah. There's no depth to it anymore. No real sense of physicality. The Donning-Starblaze era elves? Those were elves with a physical presence.

The current renditions are... well... cartoony. And just not the same.

[starsongky.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what age "toddler" you mean since I haven't seen this, but when they were small my boys didn't bother with "me" do whatever - they just went with the vowels and left the subject off entirely. Up to about three or so, kids only think in first person - everything's "me" centered, and other people exist only to serve them - so pronouns can be a hard concept to develop.

Or, being Strongbow's kid, maybe she's just having trouble converting *sent* concepts to speech.

[annathepiper]

I'm not sure of Crescent's exact age in the story, but from the size of her I'd ballpark her at two or three. Certainly younger than Suntop and Ember were when they first came on camera.

I totally get the self-centeredness of children that small; I've seen glimpses of that just on the rare visits I've had with my brother's kids. But I certainly don't remember his kid Lydia (who was age two as of our last visit) saying "me do this" or "me do that". I'll have to pay attention as the local crop of cubs that've been born around these parts this summer start getting up towards that age.

Oh, and she's constantly ordering her sire not to do "think-talk", too. That part is kinda funny, though. ;)

[annathepiper]

Guh. Did I really type Crescent? My bad. I meant Chitter. Stupid inability to edit comments.

Which is, I must admit, a cute name for a hyperactive cub of Strongbow and Moonshade, even if it still reminds me of the character by that name in the Willowholt on Two Moons. ;)

chitter

[(Anonymous)]

hi,
i havent herd much about chitter so do you think that you could write some more about her?

Re: chitter

[annathepiper]

There's not too much to know about Chitter; she's a very new Elfquest character, Strongbow and Moonshade's third known cub, and the product of the Recognition that occurred between them in The Searcher and the Sword.