Roku #4 Discussion

[SwiftMann]

It's obvious no one wants to talk about this trainwreck, but I just read #4 and I need to vent.

Let me preface any art discussion with the fact that I've been a Ramon F. Bachs fan for 20 years (going back to his Joker/Mask and Star Wars work). I genuinely like his style and his work. There are even panels in this issue I like, especially when he's channeling Jimmy Cheung. There are plenty I don't. All that said, he was absolutely the wrong artist for this series. I'm not even sure he should ever do Roku because the hair just isn't right. And then there's the complete lack of difference between Elena (a character I completely forgot about) and Marybeth. So, yes, the art is a major issue in this book.

But... The writing since the first issue is the true problem. In both the general plotting and the scripting. I know Bunn has his defenders, but I have yet to read anything by him on any property from any company that I haven't thought was mostly awful. This series may have taken the title of worst ever though.

Roku was always a Marvel's Medusa knockoff to me. She had some interesting back story that set her far enough apart in the past that I could understand the appeal. Bunn has turned her into nothing more than a one-dimensional Medusa knockoff now. This is going to be a terribly hard hole to dig the character out of.

Then there is narration like this:

Information--from the internet, from the dark web, from secured networks, maybe even from the collective consciousness--streams to her.

Internet - Yeah, okay. That's been Marybeth's premise.
Dark Web - Erm, that's just the internet again.
Secured Networks - Okay, sure.
Collective Consciousness - What the wha?! Pretty sure Bunn was just avoiding a list of three and since "dark web" was already a redundant stretch he just absolutely gave up and threw this whole new, completely nonsensical aspect into the mix.

The two new characters, Minister of Blades and Ember-1, are completely one-note. And stupid. And stupidly named.

There's a panel where Roku grabs up guns with her hair and is shown floating 10 feet in the air with 4 guns controlled by her hair and nothing in her hands. WHY?!? I'd like to see the script to see if this was Bunn or Bach's fault. Whichever, it's an awful panel.

There's just absolutely nothing redeeming about this issue or series. Giving Bunn the benefit of the doubt that he has good writing in him, he clearly just phoned this one in. It's another example that DMG has a disaster on their hands with the creative teams they are coming up with and the storylines they are allowing (driving?). Title after title in the last six months contain poor writing with mis-matched art. It's self-destructive.

[agent_graves]

I like Roku, so I gave this a shot! I shouldn’t have...