Book of the Week 1/30/08 Black Adam #6

Written by Peter Tomasi
Pencils by Doug Mahnke
Inks by Christian Alamy and Rodney Ramos
Colors by Rob Leigh


Damn, this was excellent. I really wish that other writers in DC would strive for the kind of storytelling achieved through this 6 part storyline which concludes this week. With a few notable exceptions, DC stories seem to rely too hard on the high concept blockbusters. "Black Adam" has proven that small, character driven stories can be equal parts action and emotion.


This is primarily a story of lost love. Black Adam is by no means a hero or even an anti-hero. Yet throughout this series, I have become more and more interested in the continuation of a character that is actually a mass murderer. Tomasi gives Adams every action a reason. There is no insanity here, just the dire lengths that Adam will go to to be reunited with his lost wife. Tomasi also has given us a complete bridge from where we left Adam at the end of 52 to the beginning of Countdown. While this story was plenty dark, there were several little moments that made me chuckle such as Adam finally discovering his magic word again.


Much of the credit of this series needs to go to Mahnke's pencils. This book is graphic and quite honestly, I'm surprised it was not labeled as a mature title. Mahnke seems to have a soft spot for horror books and movies as he continually finds new and disturbing ways to animate corpses and dismemberment. Almost everything in this book is the stuff of nightmares. Ex. Faust's eyes.


This series has proven to be a great "under the radar" book. While not garnering much attention, it has proved consistently entertaining. While there was one other series which came to an end this week that I really wanted to skip ahead to (I'm reading it in trades) I figured I'd give a little attention to this mini-series that should be an example to the rest of DC. Their characters are capable of great depth but can also kick ass at the same time.