Sigil #2 Review
Poor Sam Rey… First she’s chased by some girls who want to bully her. Then, she gets whisked away to the deck of the El Cazador that’s about to be boarded by a terrible pirate. What’s a girl to do?
Sigil #2
As the pirate Captain October raids El Cazador, Woodvine takes Sam below and teaches her a thing or two about the power that comes from her sigil. Despite what she’s learned, October’s crew is too powerful. The El Cazador’s crew is taken to October’s ship and interrogated about a map to a treasure that October is seeking. Woodvine is tortured to death, but before he passes, he gives her a medallion. As she’s drug off for interrogation, she’s freed and uses her power to transport around to different point eventually landing her in the water near the El Cazador again.
I like Mike Carey’s stuff in general. I really like Leonard Kirk’s art in the sense that it looks like a Crossgen comic. However, I’m quickly losing interest in this book. I held the idea of “wait and see” after issue #1, but this isn’t exactly unfolding how I hoped it would. Being a mini-series, of course we don’t get the opportunity to see the powers Sam possesses explained or revealed more fully. However the break neck pacing of the book is troubling because we’re not sure what she’s doing, how she’s doing it. We’re jarred from one place to the next so quickly, the reader is forced to read the last few pages over before continuing.
Now, some might say that we’re experiencing all this from Sam’s eyes. We only know as much as she does, so it should build more of a sense of wonder and help us identify with her a little better. In some cases, and in some stories, that would be true. It works for something like Star Wars because that was like we’re learning the Force with Luke Skywalker. We’re identifying with him being taken to strange new places because the story takes us to strange new places. In Sigil, we’re getting to go to new and strange places with Sam, but we’re moving around too fast and we know too little that it’s nearly impossible to keep up with the stuff going on around her. I’m still interested in seeing what will happen, but I’m growing a little impatient because I just can’t seem to follow the story.
If there is one really good thing about the book it’s Kirk’s art. It might be so good that it’s distracting me from the story. So, maybe that’s a bad thing too? I’m just as confused about that as I am with what’s going on in the comic!
A COMIC BOOK BLOG RATING
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Really nice art from Leonard Kirk. So nice it really captures the style I saw in so many Crossgen books back in the day (first time I ever used that expression in writing – seriously). | Pace is moving too fast to really get an understanding of what’s going on and it’s damaging a potentially cool story. |
| Rating |
