Comic Break: Gravel #5

---

Gravel
Issue: #5
Writer: Warren Ellis and Mike Wolfer
Artist: Oscar Jimenez
32 pp. Avatar Press. $3.99

Reviewed by Paul Stotts

---

"Three days I've been running on adrenaline and the rejuvenating power of pale ale." - Gravel #5

Gravel is another series that I've picked up recently, mainly due to the presence of Warren Ellis. I appreciate Ellis's unique brand of weirdness and his ability at times to push the boundaries of good taste can be amusing. However, the fifth issue of Gravel relies much more on basic action plotting than any kind of innovative scripting by Ellis or Wolfer. Instead, the issue revolves around a few pages of story setup followed by an extended battle. Good stuff, but nothing really groundbreaking or vastly entertaining here. Just a straight-forward beat-'em-up.

William Gravel is scrambling to collect all six pieces of the Sigsand manuscript, a powerful magical tool, from the Minor Seven. On arriving at the location of the next piece of the Sigsand, Gravel receives a warning from a mysterious old man whose intentions are quite unclear. Not particularly heeding the old man's warning, Gravel runs headlong into a massive confrontation with Colegrave and the "Wild Hunt". It seems that "The Wild Hunt" are an ancient legend in which the riders of the dead hunt the living in order to add them to their ranks. Unfortunately for Gravel, they now have their eyes on him.

Ellis and Mike Wolfer who are handling the scripting chores on the issue turn in a decent, but unremarkable story; it's an action-packed issue without much substance behind it. There are glimmers of cool ideas here, but they aren't explored in much detail. The extended battle is well-executed, however the final confrontation between Graves and Colegrave feels anti-climatic.

The artwork by Oscar Jimenez is beautiful stuff, filled with a high-level of detail, particularly in his character portraits. Some of the mid-angle shots though suffer from too much detail. In too many panels, Gravel's face looks like a prune with eyes. The action panels unfortunately feel static and constrained, lessening the overall impact of the battle between Graves and "The Wild Hunt". As beautiful as Jimenez's work is, it doesn't really elevate the issue.

Gravel #5 is a solid and entertaining issue, but there are a lot of comics sitting on store shelves that that can be said about.

Final Grade: 72 out of 100