Osborn 4
Writer:Kelly Sue DeConnick
Art:Emma Rios
Colors:Jose Villarrubia
It’s like raaaaaaiiiiiiiiiinnnn on your wedding day, a free riiiiiiiiidddddddeeeeeee when you already paid. Writing two reviews in a week when you thought you’d only be doing one, well who would have thought? It figurrrreeeesssss. Sorry, I just didn’t know both the things I review would be coming out this week, and I figured that’s just as ironic as anything in that song. Or that fact that she gets paid millions of dollars for her “talent”. I’m currently in the process of moving, so its going to be a couple days till I get my review of Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine #5 up. You guys will have to just find other ways to fill your time. One other thing, I don’t know how to change my name on here, but for all of you wondering (all 2 of you) it’s Anthony Sinibaldi. The name would surprise you if you saw how pasty and Irish I look. Anyways, the review:
Plot:
There was a lot going on this issue. I know last review I mentioned this story being light on plot. This issue more than makes up for that. The last three issues we were shown the underwater prison where Osborn and his fellow inmates are housed. We met the fellow inmates, who were broken out of the cells by a shady priest. Also Norah Winters was brought to the prison to document things, and last issue ended on a cliffhanger when Osborn captured Norah. This issue opens with Norah thinking back on her life, and how her grandma’s casting of God as a creepy boogeyman figure turned her off to a belief in God. She than states that if “a devil like Osborn can exist” than maybe God can exist as a counter balance, as she asks for His help out of her current predicament. Osborn then goes on a rant about him being a man of the people and appointed by God to lead the prisoners, or some such crazy talk. Crazy talk was literally what I was thinking when the next panel showed Norah’s notes on Osborn’s speech, and all they said was ‘crazy talk’ in a big circle. That made me LOL. Osborn, Norah, and some of the prisoners go on a mini quest to find out who exactly brought Norah there, and why. Through some detective work, they figure out its all Senator Morrison’s doing, so he can pin everything that goes wrong on Senator Muffoletto, and take her chairmanship in the senate, or something. Its still not 100% clear what is going on, but it is definitely something shady. Osborn gets in touch with Sen. Muffoletto and tells her he will make all of this go away if she tells him how to escape. It turns out the place has an underwater escape pod/submarine. We then find out the priest isn’t helping Osborn out because he worships him, but because he suspects him of being the anti-Christ, and wants to bring about the apocalypse, as depicted in Revelations. We also find out Carney Rives (the guy I complained in my first review was dead before we got to meet him) is alive, and he was the one that brought Norah Winters down there. He uses his powers of intangibility to get Osborn, Norah, and the gang in the escape pod (but he can’t use his powers to escape the prison, which they specifically mention). The priest is not in the pod, because Osborn sent him on an errand that wasn’t made clear. Sen. Muffoletto than calls the pentagon, and the issue ends with a missile blowing up the escape pod.
The Good:
Wow. There is a lot going on this issue. I tried my best to accurately portray all of it, but my summary didn’t really do it justice. It’s like they saved 70% of the plot for this one issue. That being said, the book dosen’t feel crammed at all. Everything seemed to come about organically. Nothing felt forced. Norah Winters, who in the last three issues was in very few panels, gets a lot of face time in this one. Not only do you get a small look back at her child hood (as I mentioned in the plot part) but she gets some terrific moments with Osborn. She tells him like it is in this issue. Ive seen a lot of posters on the Crawlspace mention that it’s stupid that any one would follow Osborn, as it’s clear he only cares about himself. Norah calls him out on this in front of the other inmates. I don’t want to give away too much, but she really sticks it to Osborn. I was never quite sure if Osborn believed himself to be a sort of savior, and what this country needs, or if he just wanted power. This issue makes it pretty clear how delusional he really is. He seems to really think he was put in power to help people, and that his new mission is to expose this secret prison, and to get people fair trials. I like the complexity of this issue. Norah argues that he’s a monster who gets what he deserves, while Osborn argues that everyone deserves a fair trail. In case any of you have been living under a rock for the last ten years, this is a lot like the debate about Guantanamo, and weather the suspected terrorists deserve a fair shake of the justice system or not. The art, again amazing. Emma Rios is one of the most talented new artists in the comics field, and I hope she gets a lot of work after this. That, and she’s pretty cute as well. 
The bad:
Having read this issue, and being a kinda broke college student, I think they really could have shortened this to2-3 issues and saved me some money. That’s really just nitpicking though, as this issue was perfect.
The Ugly:
Still no remorse from Norman about Gwen. Im still waiting….
Overall:
a pretty great issue. I looked up pics of Kelly Sue DeConnick. Boy, she sure is exactly the type of girl I normally date. Too bad she’s married to Matt Fraction…*grumble grumble*….Anyways I give this issue the honor of 5/5
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I don’t associate Superhero Comics with this kind of artwork. The cover is a total turn-off.
A good review, however:
1. I’m definately not a fan of the art.
2. Look again Butters, the escape pod doesn’t get blown away, the prison did.
@Brian and Gerard – Same trick here. I type the review in Word before I post, as well, but I do the formatting in Word Press. I’ll keep these things in mind.
Cool thing about the tags for the comments section. Now I have the power!
Also, lol using “misogyny” like it still means anything. 🙁
Yeah I do it in Word but everything is basically unformatted. I wonder if bolding everything as the last step in WordPress before posting it would solve that problem, because the first thing I do after pasting it from Word is bold it all. I have two reviews coming out this weekend, so I will also try to find some way around it. Reviewers unite!
Wow, misogyny much there butters? The review got really creepy and sexist right at the end. 😐
@Brian Bradley: That’s the fix that I’ve been using. It seems that the ordering of the tags is being read incorrectly by WordPress, regardless of the order in which you place them.
Do you guys type these up in Word and then paste them into WordPress? That’s what I do, and the Word files are already bolded. I’ll try to do it next time without bolded text and see if it works.
damn… the tags were actually added to my post instead of written out, didn’t know it would do that…. the tags are “span” and “strong” HEADING HEADING “/strong” and “/span” …. move the “strong” tags to the outside of the “span” tags… nice to know i can use those tags to add emphasis to my comments now though.
I have a quick minute here at work, so Butters, to solve the heading font color issue the manual way that I discovered… go into the HTML view. Find the heading in the code and then around that you’ll see the HEADING HEADING HEADING tags… should look something like that I believe. You’ll want to move the tags to the outside of the tags. Let me know if that makes sense and works for you. Not sure why it does that, but that is how I have fixed my headings when they act up.
I’m really enjoying this series story-wise but I just don’t care for the art that much….just not my thing there I guess.
I don’t have the issue in front of me, but it appeared to me as though Norman requested that the Priest sacrifice himself (and the rest of the inmates) by imploding the prison, creating a diversion so he could escape. I recall the Priest saying a penance prayer (asking for forgiveness for his sin(s), presumably suicide and/or murder) as he opened the hatch doors…i reached that conclusion because i remember reading something like ‘pressure level critical/etc’ on the last few pages…but missiles definitely hit the prison at the same time, which ultimately destroyed it…i just don’t think Norman planned for the missiles, yet he wanted his new servant (the priest) to do the task…we’ll shall see of course…
two thoughts…
1. i’m wondering when/if Vin Gonzales will have anything to do with these developments, the Goblin cult began in the pages of ASM, i’d like to see how he figures into it (if at all)
2. The priest confessed to being a pawn, thus not being aware of the bigger plan behind Osborn’s escape, and i’d argue that he certainly views Osborn with extreme reverence…so it would bother me if the most appealing facet of this story is not explained, that is, WHAT exactly is it about Norman that would cause a man to risk everything to free him…we know thats his endgame (Norman’s freedom and subsequent re-rising to power), but why is it his endgame? Is it because Norman’s a known criminal that fooled the world into thinking he can protect them? is it because he’s battled his demons and seemingly overcame them? is it b/c his favorite color is green?? I would like more depth into that perspective as opposed to ‘Norman can bring about a better world’ and this insinuation of a doomsday prophecy…thats what i’d like to know and i think its critical to whether or not this mini can deliver…imo
theres one more issue left, hopefully thats addressed, right now its a little too flat as to the priest’s motivations…
Why do you think Norman would show remorse over Gwen now? Seems like he would have done that by now. Good for Fraction, she is pretty cute… and writes comics. So, yeah, awesome.
The problem with the highlighting you’re having is fixed by going into the Code view and fixing it manually. Its kind of a pain but when I have the same problem thats how I fix it.
Good job on the review, butters. I’ll definitely look this one up once it’s out in trade.
And, yeah, thanks for putting up Rios’ and DeConnick’s pictures. How can you critique them when they look like that? 😉
Ugg I couldnt get all my headings to turn yellow.