By Robert Ramos

Funny man Eliot Rahal is taking over for other funny man Daniel Kibblesmith on Valiant’s Dynamic Duo, Quantum, and Woody.  I’ve been a closet fan of Eliot Rahal since his heyday outings with now bigshot Donny Cates, so it’s nice to see his name out there, on his own, on a widely renown title. So how did his big debut fair? One word: Eh.

There’s a power outage in D.C. and our duo, unable to rejuvenate their own powers, are left scrambling to be the superheroes that they are. Right off the bat, this issue is not like the Quantum and Woody we know and love. No laughs, no jokes, no gags. Nada. It was a hard pill to swallow, honestly. I came in wanting to laugh or at least chuckle a bit. Instead, I was treated to an emotion-driven issue, full of character development. I didn’t necessarily hate, but I didn’t care for it.

I certainly can’t fault Rahal for this. He did, really, a good job of showing that these characters are more than just making people laugh. It’s a pretty bold move on his behalf. Being new to the helm and instead of writing how these characters are usually portrayed, he had the balls to go on a deeper level and show some real character, especially Woody, the biggest piece of shit of them all. Kudos on that, sir.

However, the real selling point is the art. The tone of the story fits perfectly with the art combo of Francis Portela and Andrew Dalhouse. Those two stole the show, and the one spread with Quantum and Woody searching the apartment complex sealed the deal. The fire that Dalhouse colored was so vibrant and bright. It was hot. (Lame pun intended)

A gripe I had, though, was the Spanish translation. Being Hispanic myself, I can tell you for a fact, that no one talks that formally in Spanish. The translation was way too formal and almost as if they just ran the dialogue through Google translate. Whatever gets the job done, I guess.

Again, I didn’t hate this issue. I honestly didn’t. I liked what was presented, even though it wasn’t what I was expecting or wanting. I do not doubt that Eliot Rahal and crew can bring the funny back to the table in future installments. At least, I hope they can.  On the plus, we were left with a pretty big cliffhanger at the end, so there’s at least to go on.

Score 3/5

Quantum and Woody #6
Valiant Comics