REVIEW: Jirni Vol 2: The Razor’s Edge #5 (of 5)
JT Krul ”“ Story / V Ken Marion ”“ Art / Wes Hartman – Colors
Publisher: Aspen Comics
Its always a tad difficult to start looking at a book as it comes to a close. There may be nuances that are missed, character motivations and the such. Still on the plus side, I don’t have any opinion from the previous issues to muddy the water.
So Ara is on a bit of a rescue mission, looking to save some nubile slaves from the ministrations of R’anu. As you may expect, things don’t go accordingly to plan in either the execution of the rescue or possibly the outcome.
Written by J.T. Krul, the story moved along at a pretty quick pace. Normally, this could’ve been detrimental to a new reader like me, but under Krul you are not left behind. Yes there is a tad of world building and of course knowledge of said world from previous issues would help. Nevertheless, that said, whether its the fact that the story is action based rather than plot driven or not, it’s pretty easy to catch up for all intents and purposes. 
V Ken Marion supplies the art, along with a couple of influences. The artwork is a tapestry of styles, some more obvious than others. For example, the girls faces tend to move from looking like a Capullo style, to J. Scott Campbell and is that a little bit of Whilce Portacio I spy behind that Michael Turner pacing? Regardless of influences, the women on this world are clearly drawn in a bygone style that still manages to show their strength rather than other attributes. I would like to have seen a more original art style, but every artist has their comfort style; it looks like Marion has to yet to decide on his, although the digital inks by Mark Roslan does help. With this being Aspen Comics, the quality look of the book is not in question. The colors by Wes Hartman are vibrant, bold when required with darkness added in places to add a contrast.
Aspen are putting out some quality books with quality creators on board. This will stand them in good stead as they seek to carve out more of a niche for themselves on the ever crowded comic racks.
[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Author Profile
- I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow
Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network
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