Art Ops #12 Review

Art Ops ends and, sadly, art dies a little bit because of it. We review the final issue with Mike Allred back on art. Is it good?

Art Ops #12 (Vertigo)

So what’s it about? Check out our exclusive preview first. Then read the Vertigo summary:

Danny Doll, you’ve got a lot to answer for! Now that Reggie’s mom and the rest of the Art Ops are back on the scene, it’s time to find out what part Reggie’s father played in their disappearance. Is Danny really teaming up with the Neighborhood of Dads to eradicate art from the world, or is this perhaps the greatest performance piece of all time? If so, he may also be the worst grandfather of all time, as the life of Reggie and the Mona Lisa’s child hangs in the balance.

Why does this book matter?

Shaun Simon wraps things up the best he can given this series probably had the story legs to go for 60 issues, but that’s sales folks! With Mike Allred back if you have even the slightest interest in this series before you must read this one.

Fine, you have my attention. What’s good about it?

God damn Dads.

This is about as good of a happy ending as Simon could have given us. The Dads get their reckoning, the heroes all get a nice epilogue type moment, and Allred gets to cut loose with some action packed pages. Every page contains the charm and wit that made the first arc great. That includes the amount of happiness and joy Allred delivers on each page. If you’re new to this series you’ll probably be completely lost, but there’s no way to deny there’s a lot of happiness in this book.

That’s in part due to the wonderful colors by Han Allred which do a lot to ramp up the brightness of the world. In the double page spread below for instance, you see even the night sky is colorful, but the Van Gogh about to be erased is also interestingly colored. Maybe it’s an actual scan of the Starry Night, but it looks quite realistic.

It can’t be perfect can it?

Much like most books that end too quickly, the story resolves the Dads much too easily. It makes sense that love is the solution to these dastardly boring haters of art–and hell, maybe a big master plan was never in the cards–but it concludes so easily it reduces the stories impact.

Nice work Mike!

Is It Good?

This is a beautiful end to a wonderful series. There’s a lot of joy in its pages, and if you didn’t stick around but liked the series, you owe it to yourself to read this issue.