Sunday, October 08, 2023

Sunday Splash Page #291

 
"Problems Bigger Than They Appear," in Kaiju Score #4, by James Patrick (writer), Rem Broo (artist), Dave Sharpe (letterer)

Marco is the master of coming up with creative plans to heist what's supposed to be impossible. Unfortunately, he's also the master of missing one crucial detail that fouls everything up. So when he has a plan to steal a vault full of priceless art under the cover of a kaiju landfall, he's not in any position to form a crew of the best of the best.

His financing comes from a loan shark known for brutality, who insists his man-bun wearing goon goes along. The one responsible for getting all the equipment's available because he's considered practically cursed at this point. The one thing that went right, his getting world-class safecracker Gina? Well, that's fool's gold, too, because what's he actually got is a rookie named Michelle who killed the world class safecracker and took her identity because she had to do this job.

Patrick and Broo efficiently lay out how this world has adapted to the existence of kaiju, from the early warning systems like we have for hurricanes, to evacuation protocols. It's all dressed up as part of Marco's sales pitch, so they get world-building and the set-up for the heist taken in one swoop. It helps outline Marco as being creative, clever, but also a bit too glib. That last may just be Patrick's writing style, as almost every character is armed with a snappy comeback or one-liner at all times, similar to his Hero Hourly.

Broo captures the size of the kaiju, mostly by keeping them in the background. It shows off their scale and the differences in design - and I like how he they look wildly different - This is really about the desperation of the cast. Marco to pull off a score that will make his rep. Michelle to save her crew. Palmiero to prove he's not a jinx, and too that end, there are a lot of short, widescreen panels to focus on their faces as they try to keep up brave fronts, or start to snap at each other as things go wrong.

Patrick makes sure to have things go wrong in several ways. Some of them are predictable - which doesn't make the resolution less satisfying -  but others are more of a surprise. But they're done in such a way that it feels logical that it happened. The reader (and the characters) might not expect it, but they can each see how it could happen.

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