Review: ‘Adventureman’ #8 Spins The Wheel Of Plot
by Benjamin Hall
Summary
Claire’s family discusses matters of adventuring. Meanwhile there is the unearthing of a certain collection of spectral criminals. Not to mention a date is set. Yet, the question remains whether it is a date that involves romance and adventure or disaster and death?
Overall
6/10A lighting design by designer Coralie Beauchamp is on display in certain pages of this issue. Yet, for some reason letterer Clayton Cowles sizes the credit for Beauchamp in a way that is almost microscopic. This could be due to the design of the summary page (by designer Leonardo Olea) having only a certain amount of space. However, Olea does seem to slightly change the design in certain issues which means that there is a chance to adjust for this problem (Adventureman #1 [2020] and #8 [2022]). Though this assumes there are future issues that will contain Beauchamp’s design.
When it comes to lettering the interiors Cowles does a great job with most of the sizing and positioning. In particular Cowles does a unique bit to enhance a character with one word of dialogue. Nonetheless there are moments where the lettering could be better. For example the sizing of the text, and the respective word balloons, is a little too big at times. Not to mention there is one obvious typo in the form of an unnecessary word (although this typo could easily be the fault of writer Matt Fraction). On the plus side Cowles does not disrupt the pace that penciler/colorist Terry Dodson and inker Rachel Dodson establish. Thus, Cowles is still doing a more than competent job.
The visuals are high quality. However, certain artistic shortcuts are noticeable. For example Rachel Dodson does not alway ink every line to completion. Though the shortcuts will not disrupt anyone’s reading experience there is one weird facial expression that definitely will. Also the cover features a design that others rarely use, but amount of negative space arguably hampers the quality. Terry Dodson and colorist Jeremiah Skipper do good with the coloring, nevertheless they could do a little better with the consistency of skin pigmentations.
For his part Fraction does fine at juggling the large cast. Yet, Fraction’s script continues to make the story arc’s plot to feel made for the trade.
Adventureman #8 (2022) is out now from Image Comics.
