I really came around on this series, but this issue takes me right back to the first couple issues in the series again. There’s a lot of action. Some humor. Officer Long is a dark, dark individual but ultimately that’s all I took from this issue. There’s a decent cliffhanger, but that’s really it. It did seem to be trying to include new readers, but whereas other Double Take titles have done this successfully, this one didn’t. What little has happened in this series is just thrown at you with very little context. The cops also kill a lot of old people which was funny, but I don’t know what it did for the story.
I suppose you could view this series as falling the fall or loss of control of the police, but they’re not falling fast enough. In fact, I feel like the police have been given a lot of freebies in how easily they’ve maintained control. There’s a lot of cops for this area and sure some have been deputized, but it still seems like a lot.
Overall, it’s the pacing of the story that really fails. We’re all over the place following this character and then this character and really all I care about are Long and Chief McClelland. For as much time as they’re in the book, their presence feels really forced. It’s almost as if there’s so much the police in this universe could be doing that they’re at a loss as to what to actually do. Again, the story was just underwhelming even for all the action and consequences of that action. It wasn’t enough to really hold my attention.
The art is definitely the roughest of the newest issue from Double Take. Particularly during the action sequence things fall apart and details in faces and backgrounds get lost. Everything looks extremely unfinished and it kills the impact of this scene. It’s all very inconsistent in general as you can see the hard shifts in art styles from the different pencillers. Usually you can tell a little and it’s not so bad or even noticeable, but here it’s a hard shift.
I’ve got one more in me for this series, but I’m really hoping it finds its focus. It has an interesting cast, some of which isn’t even mentioned here, but that’s not enough to keep my interest when the rest of the imprint’s books are hitting their stride. I said in other reviews that these fifth issues from Double Take feel like first issues. That’s previously been a compliment, but here it’s unfortunately not. This issue takes a huge step back from the progress it made in the past four and that’s a damn shame.
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Honor #5 Story: Bill Jemas, Michael Coast, Jonathan Ashley Script: Frank Ortega, Ian Deming, Bill Jemas Layouts: Jonathan Ashley, Stan Chou Pencils: Raphael Sam, Dennis Crisostomo, Jethro Morales, Novo Malgapo Publisher: Double Take Comics Price: $2.50 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital
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