REVIEW: Pirouette #2

Story: Mark L. Miller
Art: Carlos Granda
Letters: Jim Campbell
Colors: El Comic En Linea Foundation
Publisher: Black Mask Studios
Release Date: November 26, 2014

In the second issue of this beautifully drawn series, Pirouette comes one step closer to finding her birth parents and escaping from underneath the grimy heal of the abusive Duke. This issue, however, is less about personal discovery, a main theme of the previous issue, and more about moving the story along.

No matter how good a series is overall, almost inevitably you’ll run across a few issues that are simply, well, boring. Unfortunately, this is one of those issues. It moves along at a snails pace and doesn’t really add any necessary detail to the story as whole, other than the last page. Understand, the book isn’t poorly written, it accomplishes its goal of allowing Pirouette to realize that there is indeed life beyond the big top and that she may have a place there, if she’s brave enough to find it. It’s just that this issue is plain old uninteresting.

In all fairness, I’m not sure there’s anything that Miller or his team could have done to avoid this, as some type of conflict is imperative in building not only a believable, but engaging narrative. Being that Pirouette is almost a purely cerebral story, that conflict occurs mostly in the form of emotional hesitancy and inner doubt. Again not the most exhilarating stuff in terms of a comic book, but imperative for the story to work nonetheless.

The art, as I’ve mentioned, continues to be a huge selling point for the book and it becomes increasingly apparent that that was a conscious decision. Without Carlos Granda’s amazing pencil and ink work, Pirouette might very well flounder in obscurity due to the nature of the comic. So, good thing the pictures are pretty and incredibly detailed; it really helps to alleviate the book’s often depressing tone and particularly this issue’s lack of vitality.

That said, I can’t in good conscious recommend this book to anyone who hasn’t read issue one, as this is mostly filler. It’s a little troubling to find that so early in the book’s run, but I’m confident given Miller’s storytelling pedigree that things will get back on track soon.

Review by: A.C.

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Adam Cadmon

Adam Cadmon is the pen name for a man who has been writing for a few years. Heâ€™s done his share of straight-laced writing, college press, blogging, some other not very glamorous technical writing to keep the bills paid. Itadakimasu.