Elfquest: Discovery
Nov. 12th, 2006 05:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperI 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.
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.