I unfortunately have to continue my criticism of this series with this issue. While it's nice to see McCarthy back on art, I really do think that this issue and the last could have been condensed into a single issue. This would have tightened up the pace of the overall story which, as I noted last time, might have had an effect on the continuation of the series. This is also the second cover of the series that has depicted Zell attacking Klarion, something that has never actually occurred in the comic itself. I noted last time that I felt like this might have been some shoddy editing, and I'm inclined to think the same thing with this cover, and with the stretching of a shorter story into a 6-issue story.
Have you noticed that my critiques of series become more vehement the longer I'm reading them? I still haven't quite figured out how to address this problem. I suppose I could just read single issues, but with extended storylines like this one, I feel like I would lose track of the tale and have to go back and re-read everything that came before. Not that I have anything against such practices, but it would make the whole "read all of the comics in my collection" project a bit more protracted.
Anyway, all that said, I'm still enjoying the series. The real test, especially in this project, of a good read for me is whether or not I feel like I would have bought or read the comic as it was being published. Klarion would definitely have made it this far (I do try to give a comic 6 months before jettisoning it). Whether or not it would have survived past issue 5 or 6 would really have depended on whether or not the storytelling got tightened up a bit. Nocenti and McCarthy are good storytellers, but I think the difference between good and great is knowing how much and how long of a story is likely to retain audience interest. You can tell a 12-issue story featuring the Justice League or the Avengers (Hickman's run is kind of a 100+ issue storyline, right?), but not with someone like Klarion. He just doesn't have that fictional cachet.
So we'll finish up this series tomorrow, and then move on to something completely different, I think. See you then.
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