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Is It Good? Talon #17 Review

Comic Books

Is It Good? Talon #17 Review

After 17 issues, this is it: we’ve reached the finale for the Talon series, ending with a two issue story by Tim Seeley. How does it all conclude? Is it good?


Talon #17 (DC Comics)


talon-17-cover

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Calvin Rose and Anya Volkova continue wandering through the tunnels below one of the labs of the League of Assassins. Their mission is to find one of the Lazarus Pits to help bring Calvin back to life fully so he doesn’t have to be an undead Talon anymore. There is trouble though, as the base has Lord Death Man wandering the caves and Dr. Darrk in the lab itself. What can the pair do against these ominously named foes?

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Well… that was surprisingly easy.

For the big conclusion to the entire series, this was a decent way to wrap things up. Talon #17 features some great fights between the heroes and villains, good character moments, and a solid conclusion that wrapped up most everything while still leaving the door open for more storylines if the powers that be choose to follow up on them. The only thing that I would say is the weakest part of the issue is Calvin himself: he does not get to do a lot, with the resolution for everything being done by Anya instead, and his only real accomplishment is a brawl with Lord Death Man. It’s a bit disappointing in that regard, but still a good wrap up for the series.

The writing by Tim Seeley is good overall. Characterization is solid, with some decent backstory for Anya and very memorable villains (Lord Death Man is particularly good and can steal the show at points). The pacing is good and the story flows well, but the ending feels like it skipped a few pages, with the characters in Pakistan and then immediately cutting back to Gotham with them getting what they wanted (I don’t get how they possibly able to wrangle Lord Death Man considering everything). The dialogue is also good and there some good lines and bits of humor, mostly with Death Man again.

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Not sure how he is going to escape down in those tunnels when there is really no way out other than an escape hatch into the ocean with hundreds of deadly sharks around.

The artwork for this and previous issue was done by Jorge Lucas. He is a step above most of the artists that have worked on the series overall (Besides Guillem March), with impressive looking characters, scenes that are easy to follow, solid action (again, the brawl between Calvin and Death Man is especially good here), and decent colors. Personally, the artwork doesn’t work for me that much, but it is certainly better than work that we have gotten before and I’m glad the title was at least able to end on a good note regarding its art.

Is It Good?

Talon #17 is a great finish to this series that had a lot going for it, despite it being a spin-off. While there were some minor problems here and there, the writing was strong enough to overcome whatever issue and the series even had a decent artist to close everything out. Ultimately, Talon was a great little series that not everyone checked out, which is a shame. It is very much worth your time reading and I look forward to where Calvin Rose ends up next, which apparently is Batman Eternal.

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