Never a smoke break when you need it.
Creative Staff:
Story: Chris Warner
Art: Patrick Olliffe, Tom Nguyen
What They Say:
Shady federal agents have tasked bounty hunter Barb Wire with tracking down and delivering her former associate Avram Roman, or she’ll face dire consequences. With little choice but compliance, Barb learns that her former ally is not the man she remembers . . . if indeed he is a man at all!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Barb Wire’s flashback story with some of her origin material has been interesting on some level, but it’s had the problem of coming across as overly long and not quite as engaging as it should be. Some of that is just the style of the series as it doesn’t have the right kind of gritty nature about it with the scripting or artwork to make it really feel like what it seems to want to be. It’s working well enough within the more traditional sense of how these books play out from the big publishers, but I keep wishing that it just took advantage of the receptive nature of a lot of readers these days to really reinvent the character and the world. There’s just a lot of familiarity to be had here.
With the interrogation continuing on, we get to see more of the past with Barb and Roman as he had her in his grasp and was ready to get rid of her. But there’s an understanding that’s built between them that has her letting him go. Part of that is simply because Hunter arrives with his group and forces the situation after another group comes to take Roman from her. It’s a standard kind of power grab situation, but Barb has thrown in with Hunter and his crew for this and he’s ensuring his own future position with her as well. For Barb, some of this is just pure survival angles being played, made easier by her close relationship with Hunter at this time, but it’s also establishing her style since she makes the deal with Roman and carries through with it.
What we see through the flashbacks that happen going forward as the interrogation goes on is that she has come across him over the years, though he’s become less and less human each time. It’s an intriguing angle to play and it factors into the Stormblud story as we know that the weapon came from Roman. The reason why is where it takes the neat turn in that Roman has been working to figure out how to neutralize it himself, knowing the threat it represents to people like himself. It makes it clearer why the feds are after him and will work through Barb to get him, but it’s also just a long way to go to explain and explore all of this. It almost feels worthwhile by the end of the issue and we see more of Roman’s transformation from how he started out, but it still feels like we’re missing out on a real motivational aspect to drive it home in a big way.
In Summary:
Barb Wire continues to frustrate me, though some of that comes from me wanting the book to be something that it’s not (but should be). This issue brings us through more of Roman’s transformation from when Barb first met him to how he is now that he’s meddling in her life once again. Of course, learning that he’s had involvement over the years has her feeling even more frustrated by him, especially since he’s likely viewing what he’s done as repaying a debt from when she let him go. The story as presented isn’t bad, but I’m still not feeling any real reason to invest in it or the series as a whole – and that’s not seven issues in. That doesn’t speak too well of the book for me, though I’m hopeful that they can really find a way to take this book in a far more engaging direction both in story and character.
Grade: B-
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: January 6th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
