George R.R. Martin Presents Wild Cards: Now And Then by Carrie Vaughn and art by Renae De Liz (graphic novel review).
There is an art to writing comic books in any format. Unlike written fiction, the visuals are handed over to the artist, and the writer is essentially writing a script. Looks simple, but it isn’t. If you’re not careful, the story turns into talking heads when really you need to balance things with a level of action. Orient the plotting with that in mind.
Here we have two aces. Ana Cortez, aka Earth Witch, and Kate Brandt, aka Curveball, had to recount their actions to a Brazilian lawyer about a year ago for the UN’s Committee for Extraordinary Interventions when they were sent to Brazil to investigate the Aurora Mission that is supposed to be looking after joker children. When they arrive, they find themselves stonewalled by Jorge Ribeiro from the mayor’s office, showing them hospitality of the tourist trade instead of letting them do their job. They sneak away and locate ace Gabriel Silva, who takes them upriver to find out what is really going on and just what the Reverend Joseph Marten is doing. All of this is done as a series of flashbacks, jumping to the present when the lawyer Diana Rocha wants some clarification. Much of the story then becomes a spoiler.
Producing a story like this removes an element of suspense because we know the two aces survive and haven’t really changed that much. Any significant action to less than 20 pages, and it’s obvious from the art that the artist Renae De Liz is working with what she was given.
I should point out that ‘Now And Then’ came out a couple of months before ‘Sins Of The Father’, although I wouldn’t have been surprised if they hadn’t been commissioned at the same time. Ranae De Liz’s art here is more traditional comic book style, with Ray Dillon supplying ink and colour, the latter easily recognised as computer-generated with a lighter palette. Both Curveball and Earth Witch look like teens when I would have thought they would be older. Always a problem when turning words to visuals.
It isn’t all bad, but it is not likely to change anything that is in the ‘Wild Cards’ books.
GF Willmetts
April 2025
(pub: Bantam Books, 2023. 160 page graphic novel hardback. Price: varies. ISBN: 978-0-8041-7708-3)
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