Sword of Sorcery #4 Discussion/Spoilers

[Rakzo]

One of the most entertaining reads of the week.

Despite that this issue is not focusing on Nilaa, Marx has a fun story to tell about a corporate witch or "C.O. Sorceress" who wants to, say it with me, take over the world, of course.

Anyway, the best aspect of this issue is how well aware is about its whole plot, I love Marx's dialogue and she makes Amy a really witty girl and even has suprisingly good handle on Constantine who probably was the most enjoyable character here.

Now I know that Birds of Prey is in good hands.

The backup was interesting but the art was not that good, I miss Jesus Saiz.

[El Sombrero]

Bad issue. Just felt like complete and utter filler. Marx was doing really solid world building and character work in Nilaa, but this interlude felt pointless...the corporate villain lady was lame, the story was boring, just ugh. Also really missed Lopresti's work...this issue highlighted how vital he is to this title's appeal. Backup did nothing for me in any way.

Please keep this title permanently in Nilaa from now on, and have Lopresti do as much as possible or get a better fill-in artist.

[ILoveVibe]

One of the most entertaining reads of the week.

Despite that this issue is not focusing on Nilaa, Marx has a fun story to tell about a corporate witch or "C.O. Sorceress" who wants to, say it with me, take over the world, of course.

Anyway, the best aspect of this issue is how well aware is about its whole plot, I love Marx's dialogue and she makes Amy a really witty girl and even has suprisingly good handle on Constantine who probably was the most enjoyable character here.

Now I know that Birds of Prey is in good hands.

The backup was interesting but the art was not that good, I miss Jesus Saiz.

I am with you Rakzo

[doordoor123]

Bad issue. Just felt like complete and utter filler. Marx was doing really solid world building and character work in Nilaa, but this interlude felt pointless...the corporate villain lady was lame, the story was boring, just ugh. Also really missed Lopresti's work...this issue highlighted how vital he is to this title's appeal. Backup did nothing for me in any way.

Please keep this title permanently in Nilaa from now on, and have Lopresti do as much as possible or get a better fill-in artist.

I agree that it seemed like filler, but the writing was really well done. There were two spotty parts, but other then that, I was really surprised.
As to the filler-part, she said that Constantine would become more prominent in the book. She was using this issue to introduce Constantine into the book.
And maybe it isn't the last time we will see that villain. Maybe there are bigger plans for her down the road.

I had a lot of fun reading this, but I do feel like it felt fillery. I've read books even more fillery though and I have read worse fillers.
I'm actually excited to see what she can do on Birds of Prey.

[Eivion]

I agree that the story felt mostly like filler. That said, I think this was actually the most I've enjoyed the main feature. It was nothing spectacular, but the whole issue was just a terribly fun read. It was also great seeing Amy have such a handle on things.

[Famousringo]

Most fun issue yet, and neatly wraps up that JLD business. Would have been better if it had been a little more synchronized with Amy's appearance in JLD, but better to tie up loose ends skillfully than timely.

I wouldn't call this filler. It answered important questions from a related book and provided some well-executed comic relief. I particularly enjoyed how Marx dangled the prospect that Amy would have to call Constantine for rescue, but no, she's indebted to him for the price of a pizza instead.

Now we can go back to our regularly scheduled political machinations and family infighting.

Not enjoying the backup as much as Beowulf.

[Den]

Ok, filler or not, the CEO Sorceress was darkly amusing. Sometimes it is GOOD to see just how badly the "amateurs" can mess with magic if the 'pros' aren't there to stop them. Of course, our heroine is hardly an old hand herself but she handled things nicely.

[new_onslaught]

Though it was filler, it was a good issue. I liked how Marx handled Constanitne and I'l like to her writing him again. The back-up wasn't as good as Beowulf, but I liked that it's not pure fantasy, taking place it the present.

[JasonTodd428]

This wasn't my favorite book this week but I thought it was a decent read myself and I enjoyed the CEO Sorceress bit in particular. The backup wasn't as good as the Beowulf one but still interesting enough.

[hobogunn]

Loved this issue too; it's nice to have more grounded-in-reality moments like Amy going for a pizza. It'll suck though that she'll need to (/spoiler)depend on Constantine for return trips to Earth, as long as he has possession of the transportation crystal.
(//spoiler)

[SpadesSlick]

I think this issue was one of the better ones actually. Yeah the story was kinda treading water but it's saved from that with solid character work. Poor Amy, no delicious pizza is worth being indebted to constantine.

[HellsRider]

I'm sadly in the camp that thinks this was a bad issue for a number of reasons not the least of which is with regards to the timeline of events when this occurred considering this after JLDA 1, so I figure their would be some sense of urgency from Constantine to keep Amaya around to help in getting Zatanna and Tim Hunter back, but thats more an editorial issue I suppose (the more funny way to look at it is that Constantine kept Amaya locked in the House of Mystery until the current arc of JLD was over). With regards to the issue, its the very definition of filler. She has an episode on Earth and not much happens. The CEO sorceress was beyond awful and very much cliche in the worst way and this combined with the cliche big guy trainer in the last issue has me worried about where things are going. While the issue is self-aware, it doesn't make reading it any better. Their was a lot of missed opportunity here. I would have loved to have seen Amaya go back to the school setting in issue 0 and meet that girl she saved like after school or something. Considering she looks so different, but with the same attitude, their could have been some fun contrast of the 0 issue to now.

Additionally, if they had to weave in a villain here, I would have liked one with a history with Amaya's mom from the time her mom first appeared on Earth that both this and the previous issue have made mentioned of that she didn't really keep her powers a secret in the first few years. It would establish an Earth villain to revisit and with Amaya going back to Nilaa it would lead to us wanting to know more about this villain from her mom in the next issue and figuring it out their priorities (my thought process being that it would have been more of a dialog heavy issue so that Amaya wouldn't have to contact Constantine until maybe the end to mention to him to keep an eye on this Earth villain). Having such a throwaway villian, is the worst. Art-wise, I actually wouldn't mind if Lopresti stuck to the Nilaa setting and a different artist did the Earth stuff as it would show the contrast quite well, so I think Moore does an okay job here.

The backup didn't grab me much at all from a writing and an art standpoint. I think the biggest mistake was basically setting the first half of the story in the far past and then the rest by fast forwarding to the present already. I think it would have been more fun to see Stalker in different eras as the backup continues doing tasks for Lucifer that builds up to something and seeing Stalker's personality change as time goes by. Overall this is by far the weakest issue of the series for me.

[jtd]

The Stalker backup was really, really bad IMO. And I was looking forward to it! The main character wasn't appealing in the least. I've no interest to see where this is going.

And his origin made no sense. He's from a long time ago and has a name that can't be pronounced, so we'll call him "Stalker". Yet "Stalker's" own wife from that era has an easily pronounced name "Lyll'Anna".

Was his name 5faslkdj37^T-Y94**^ ???

[dupersuper]

The interlude did hurt the momentum this early on, but I still hate referring to single issue stories as filler.