The Warning #7 // Review
Edward Laroche’s hard military alien invasion story The Warning dives into a bit of pulpiness with the seventh issue. The ominous tensioner continues to mount has certain complications come to light and the background of the action. Laroche’s art continues to be well framed and cinematic and a well delivered story which seems to be filtering a bit in its conception as mysteries are revealed in a way that isn’t exactly satisfying. Brad Simpson’s colors drape the action of a slightly disappointing seventh issue in a lush moodiness.
The perspective opens from the perspective of one of the invaders. The rogue planetoid Kodiak _5714-6667 is 25 trillion miles from Earth and closing. Space is being folded in the interest of advancing the invasion. The extraterrestrial threat is seen as being humanoid but not entirely human as overwhelming technology continues to batter the Earth. A valiant pilot from the UK engages a pair of extraterrestrial fighters against ridiculous odds. Through it all there is some suggestions of something far more sinister going on than a simple alien invasion. Once again the Earth's forces are in the way over their heads. Any victory that might actually occur is going to be a pyrrhic one.
Laroche's Big disappointment here is in a shift from one mood of science fiction invasion to another. Before this chapter, there was a definite feeling of something ominous and truly alien approaching. It's all the snow it might be War of the Worlds by way of 2001: A Space Odyssey. With the aliens fully revealed As mostly being a version of human, The narrative dress over and more in the direction of pulpy science fiction. More sort of a Flash Gordon by way of Star Trek with a little bit of Frank Herbert's Dune thrown-in for style. It's not a bad approach, but it's a disappointment considering the narrative has been leaning so heavily in a different direction before this issue.
Laroche's continues to be very atmospheric. Action shoots across the page in sweeping motions. The dog fight between earth and space fighters feels very dynamic Not necessarily offering anything new. Simpson's colors work very well here. The most impressive word seems to be the Colors Simpson drapes in the alien portions of the story. BET architecture feels very exotic in Simpson's hands. There's a theory on an earthly clue about the whole thing that feels very slick.
It's too bad that the story is veering off in the direction of being more of a traditional Sci-Fi invasion story than something that it could have been. The military grounding of the story and the strange poetry of military language really seem to be pulling for something that would have been more abstract and stylish. With the aliens being more human than not, the whole story begins to feel a bit less appealing. A strange fusion between things that probably work better on their own. I'm taking on its own, this issue is OK. As a part of something more substantial, however, it's quite a disappointment.
