Okay, I'm going to sound like a broken record here, but Before Watchmen Ozymandias, by Len Wein and Jae Lee and June Chung is another top notch sequential art production (so that makes five out of five Before Watchmen first issues that are amongst the finest comics out there today)! Truthfully, I was a little concerned with how good the writing by Len Wein on Ozymandias would be, because while I've loved his superhero comic book writing since the 1970's, I don't recall any particular story that he did that had any real weight, beyond just being entertaining (and I don't mean this as a slight because there's nothing wrong with just being a consistently entertaining writer). I'm happy to report that from page one of Before Watchmen Ozymadias #1, Len Wein proves he's more than up to the task of writing characters and stories within the Watchmen world. This first issue beautifully sets the groundwork for exploring Ozmandias' past and what makes him tick (pun probably intended - grin!) and I'm glad that this Before Watchmen mini series will be six issues in length (most of the other ones are just four issues long).
The first thing anyone who just casually flips through Before Watchmen Ozymandias will notice about this comic is how beautiful the art and coloring is. Those already familiar with Jae Lee's art over the years, especially on his Inhumans maxi series and his Dark Tower adaptations, already know what a master artist Jae Lee is. But with Before Watchmen Ozmandias #1, Jae Lee has turned up his artistic prowess up considerably and a HUGE part of how great this comic looks is due to the increadibly lush coloring by June Chung (I think this is the first time she's colored Jae Lee's art). Seriously, Jae Lee's art and June Chung's coloring has a beauty on par with the sequential art lyricism of P. Craig Russell and J.H. William III's art and like with these aforementioned artists, Jae Lee always looks for diffierent approaches to conventional comic book story-telling and layout. Before Watchmen Ozmandias #1 gets the Ich Liebe Comics! HIGHEST recommendation!
No comments:
Post a Comment