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Armageddon 2020
Comics
Armageddon 2020
By Animeshen & Stormcrow
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Gray

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Hunter
Final Score: 8.32
Armageddon 2020
By Camel & Corn Of The Breads & kubo & PyrasTerran & Radji & Badger
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Kubo

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Miller

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Klepp

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Ma

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Talon

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Chica Chicana
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WINNER
Final Score: 8.41
Comments (32)
Defenders
Writing: Its been said by others, but the first act take on chronological order didn’t do it for me. There is something to be said for, and I appreciate you taking a stab at it, doing nonlinear storytelling. When done right, it is a boon. However, you have to be too careful when you cut back and forth, and that’s where I feel you guys missed the mark a bit. When you do a jump, I think you have to preface the jump with an ending panel that feels like it’s about to transition into something. I know you guys wanted it to be like with a movie in that regard and if that’s the case there are a bunch of neat tricks to keep people from getting yanked out of the flow of the story that you would have done well to study. I’m gonna mention one common one, that I saw in comics as well: Have an object that is focused upon before the transition. A panel where the thing, it can be a face, a coffee mug, a tapestry. anything really. Then on the next page, have that same object, or something very similar to it as the focus on the next panel. One jump that comes to mind, is the one that jumps to Ma doing the brief. That could have been smoothly done if the focus was on Ma’s head, then a mirror panel showing the same head in a different setting on the next page. Once we are clear of the 1st act though? It comes into its own in a big way. The action is solid, a lto of the dialogue is good, a lot of emotions are drawn out and laid bare. IT flows really good from 2nd to Ending. The beats are good. Like, really damn good at times. They way you pace, and the way your dialogue is rich but never in the way, its something I strive to achieve and seeing it being so well handles honestly has me wondering why many mainstream comics fail so hard at it. However. I am gonna have to address the Elephant(s) in the room. You guys did Hunter dirty. I mean, REAL dirty. Compared to everyone else, Hunter is written as a shallow, jealous person without any of the warmth and kindness that runs as a red thread throughout all his comics. You seem you were entirely focused on cool set pieces fighting him and engineering a reason that he and Gray would be apart and not working together for Millar to have one time. As a result, You guys wrote him out more as a generic villain foil towards your superhero team. Their entire lead up was a despairing Hunter being pushed along by Gray and his love for her. And it should be mentioned that Gray was also written out of character a bit, albeit not as badly as Hunter. You laser focus on her apparent obsession with Miller, making it less about the two threats and more about Miller. Thematically, Miller is interesting. But the focus gets repetitive, and it takes it out of the Threat. And when Hunter and Miller meet, there is a page that is basicly just Miller insulting and having what feels like a dick measuring contest between the two, further giving of a strange OOC feeling for Hunter that never shown to be like that. If I am supposed to care about Millers final fate, your expression for him from the point forward was not conveying it. He is often shown smiling in a cruel and arrogant way when dealing with Hunter. He is secure and he looks like he takes pleasure when he literally weaponizes the memories of Gray cheating on Hunter. That is not in any way, a sympathetic potrayal. Again, if the thematic approach for Miller was to reflect a sickly obssession, yes, good. But its been clarified that was not the case. Miller is not heroic, he driven by his own interestes in Gray (Putting the city at risk doing so.) He has a history, that is made a point by the way he uses said history to attack Hunter, of using his powers to continue an affair with Gray. Again, its not making him seem any more sympathetic. So when the ending comes, thematically, it would be fitting if it was portrayed as the rightful price of Miller’s past. But its meant to be a sympathetic blow to the reader? Not buying it. Outside of the Hunter/Gray/Miller dynamic. The writing is solid for the most part. My favorite part was Kubo and Luz dialogue. IT was it flowed so well and Luz was written as such a colorful addition to Kubos parts. But as Cy said, some of the writing outside the trio felt like it had no real direction or proper payoff. My two favorites shone when you gave them time (Chica and Klepp) but they felt like a side story without proper connection. Chica at least, got her payoff, but Klepp felt like they were going somewhere, then at the end, it’s back to square one? It feels like a cheap ending for that particular thread. Talons story felt the least developed and I really feel like you guys put to much time into Miller that ended up stealing the time to develop Talons role in the whole thing. And honestly, this sucks becouse as a Necromancer, they should have been front and center for Hunters ire. Its epressed very clearly in the run up. Yet… You chose not to work on this angle, what felt at all. It’s a massive lost opportunity. 120 pages is enough space to have that confrontation in a proper light. Art: Honestly. I have very little crits for the artside of things. Your monster design? 10+. YOur surroundings? Amazing. Expressions are very emotive and strong. The color is great. The Fightscenes are so good. The only part that is a little rough is one or two style switches, but that comes with 6 people owrking on thing and everyone having pencils in it. I dont really mind it and i didnt notice it on the re-reads. Radji? Your grasp of sound effects is prolly the best on the site in my eyes. Fucking teach me, you french lovable bastard.Defenders
So from the get go, these pages were clearly designed to generate as much hype as possible because from page one I was like !! HYPE!! Super excited despite the long page count. I love that you opened with a man speared on a spike, a direct nod to Hunter’s shrike form, and even used his colour scheme. Which on its own is cool enough, but damn the gold/black combo make for a dramatic and gorgeous beginning. The architecture was fantastic, I’m so glad you all decided to set a good chunk of this in and around a cathedral. Tbh, when it panned up on Gray and Hunter in the first few pages I was hit with Hunchback of Notre Dame vibes. It had such a great presence, and its interior with the stained glass windows was lovely too. I also LOVED the title pages for each act. The symbols were so stylish, I love the little story they told as they changed through each act and the foreshadowing they provided that I only realised upon rereading, like Klepp’s hand reaching for Gray’s tattoos! Since Badger and Corn are the concept artists, I’m guessing we have you two to thank for the sick demon designs? Because goddamn, I enjoyed the demons. There were so many unique designs, I applaud you for putting care into them instead of going the easy route of horned, forked tail humans, even though most of them only appear for a few panels! They added greatly to my enjoyment (special shout-out to the eyeless toothy demon that escorts Miller and the elephant skull demon in the graveyard). Also I love the feathered dinosaurs, god bless. I had no issue following the story and it honestly surprised me to hear that was a problem for a few other people. Some of the cuts were strange, but I was never confused and I quite liked the non-linear structure. I also liked that it wasn’t non-stop action/drama and there were moments of respite, like Chica making a “meat muppet” out of a demon’s severed head, and Talon’s sweet but awkward interactions with the ghosts and Amber. And the Ma twist in Act 1, I LOVED that. I knew something was up since things were going so easily, but the fact that it was Ma betraying them still surprised me! The explanation of him and Miller being psychically incompatible was a very interesting take as well, and totally made sense. I’m glad it had further payoff later on in the story aside from just a handy reason Miller couldn’t see the betrayal coming. Gray getting her tattoos cut out also shook me, really didn’t see that coming. Moving on to the other two Acts. Like I said earlier, I love that Miller and Ma’s incompatibility came into play later - when their blood and sauce mix, enabling them to communicate (and I’m guessing the reason for his severed ties to the hive mind too?) It was so unexpected, that Miller was effectively trapped but kept alive in this weird soupy mindscape, and it played nicely into the whole fatedead thing too (I saw that Meredith). The idea of using animals to attack Gray’s demons was also cool, although I do wonder how Talon is controlling them if they don’t have souls. Finally, Chica’s moment of pulling Gray’s heart out was so fucking badass, loved that. Overall, I was super impressed by how cohesive and coherent this was. I haven’t fully read past Armas, but what I’ve seen was very clearly divided into different artists and came off a bit disjointed. The art here all came together well aside from a handful of pages, as did the story. It blows my mind that this was put together by 6 different people. I also love how every character (bar one, we’ll get to that) had very clear and different agendas. Watching them each try to get their own way and inevitably clashing made for some really juicy chaos and story. And now for the crits. Something I noticed is that while I found the art for your side similarly amazing... nothing stuck with me after reading it. I can’t bring to mind any particular panel or page that truly wowed me. Meanwhile, I was thinking about the mind invasion scene with Ma and the jellyfish ending for hours after reading the Threat’s side. This isn’t to say the art is less good, not at all - the quality was consistently great and I enjoyed each page as it came. I think it’s because there were no particularly creative shots; the camera moved enough to keep the comic from being static and that’s about it, the lighting was pretty standard throughout, many scenes felt like I’d seen them before elsewhere, etc. Story-wise, like I said, this was pretty solid and very good for a collaborative story with a large cast, but I feel like part of Gray and Hunter’s characters was sacrificed for spectacle. I really couldn’t see Gray so willingly and gleefully ripping the power from her beloved, and attacking him when he tried to stop her. It was very dramatic, and provided cool imagery, but just wasn’t believable to me. Hunter’s anger towards Gray for cheating, too, surprised me, especially in contrast to his acceptance and forgiveness in the Threat’s side. Not to mention Gray’s militant protectiveness over Miller and outburst towards Hunter at even suggesting the “corpse” be moved. I also don’t understand how she could steal Hunter’s power and leave him unconscious on the floor, but he still has enough power to fight and transform? And he still has his half of the gem What did she take from him then? After waking up, he didn’t seem any weaker than he was before, in fact he seemed stronger. There was something else that I didn’t notice initially, probably because the Threat’s side did it too, but seeing as this half is longer and has a more complex storyline I think it’s more of a problem - this very much felt like a Miller comic. The story is framed through him - it starts with him being brought to the cathedral, then we have some inner monologue, he’s the one to assemble everyone, even when he’s “dead” his corpse and sister play significant roles in the story, his twisted relationship with Gray is ultimately what brings BOTH threats down - his presence unravels Gray, and by taunting Hunter, showing him the memories of being with Gray, he is stunned long enough to kill. Miller is the only one who has internal monologue, the only one who narrates part of the story, and the only one to really talk with either threat besides Ma. The others.. well tbh, Hunter and Gray kinda use stock phrases at them before attacking and then they fight (Talon, Kubo and Klepp) or get captured (Chica). There’s nothing wrong with having a focus character - it’s hard to give everyone exactly equal time in an ensemble cast - or having a narrator character, but having a disproportionate amount of the key events happen because of him, when he isn’t even a mastermind who did it /intentionally/ like Ma, on top of all this definitely tips the story towards him in the meta sense. I also understand he has a history with Gray, and that definitely SHOULD be utilised, but the way it was done feels like he’s more important than the other Defenders. On a related note, at first I liked that Chica was the one to kill Gray. It was a very dramatic and surprising moment, and it does make sense for the story as she is the only one who has been directly hurt by Gray. However, it feels cheap after all the time we spent on Miller. People in the chat expressed confusion over why Chica had the most at stake, because although she did voice her reasons, there was hardly any lingering on them. It was a few brief mentions of a life for a life, and I think she was shown Jowee during her torture? But seeing as that single panel was all glitchy and in Spanish, I couldn’t tell. I would have liked to see Chica deal with that pain more, maybe even a flashback of her comforting Jowee after the loss. Just something more, seeing as she commits one of the most important acts in the comic. Other Defenders could have done with just more too. Kubo gets a decent amount of screentime along with Ma, but Klepp and Chica have barely any speaking lines, and I have no idea about Talon’s motivations to join the group. He just kinda goes “okay” and follows along. Miller is the one rounding them up, Kubo is selfless and wants to save the city, Chica wants revenge, Klepp wants to collect Gray, Ma... it’s complicated but I get his goals. Why is Talon there? What does he want, or what obligation does he feel to these people? Or is it just a selfish desire to stay alive? No explanation is given. Going back to the beginning of the para, all of the Defenders do have little private moments - Chica’s torture, Talon’s talk with the dead, Klepp injecting himself - and I appreciate that very much. But the moments for these characters feel so quick and rushed over compared to the multiple scenes of Kubo helping people out or chatting to Luz, Ma’s monologuing and of course the many scenes that focused on Miller, Hunter and Gray. The former characters have like a page or two at best and then the story marches forward. Some more nitpicky stuff: while the wordiness didn’t bother me the first read, I definitely noticed on the second. The Threat side had pages with a lot of words, but due to the horizontal format, they were more spread out and didn’t give the same effect. Page 20 for instance, that’s a LOT of words crammed into one page. Sometimes, the reading order wasn’t clear due to a vertically split panel. It happened a couple of times, for example on page 34, the last four panels. For western style comics, the eye naturally wants to go left before it goes down, so I read Chica being hit and THEN her saying Kubo would not approve. Also for the most part your styles flowed together pretty well, but some switches, like between page 23 and 24, were jarring. Having said that, there were 6 of you and it’s honestly amazing how well you worked together, so this really isn’t a big issue for me. Finally, the scene on page 86 was funny instead of dramatic to me because of Miller’s clunky dialogue, “Let me tell you it.” Try saying it aloud, it sounds very awkward. “Let me tell you,” or “let me tell you about it” would have been better.Threat
First off, the art was amazing. I really don’t know what you guys mean when you say it was half coloured bc aside from the one page with a totally white background and another that looked a tad flat, everything looked fully rendered to me. The colour palettes were choice, shout out especially to the red and green graveyard scenes, the dull gold of Klepp’s backpack and the divine white and gold of the end scenes! The symbolic imagery throughout the comic was just outstanding and done really well imo. There’s so many sequences I love, like the Lily and Talon’s deaths, Ma invading Gray’s mind, the golden threads on pages 40-44, and the jellyfish at the end! Damn!! To go more specific, on page 16 when Hunter just strides off, wings flowing behind him, and he offers a gold cross to Talon in silhouette... chef’s kiss. The sketchy figures in Gray’s mind fading into shards of glass? Chef’s kiss. Honestly all the golden thread pages, but especially page 42 with Miller and Hunter swirling around Gray, and page 44 with that golden light - CHEF’S KISS. And the ending. Holy fuck the ending. Holy SHIT. BIG FUCKING CHEF’S KISS. Also! Just a mention of some smaller moments I liked: the shot on page 36 of Gray’s back is just great, full of emotion even though we can’t see her face. I like the side by side panels of similarly posed Hunter and Miller on page 37 too. And with that, it’s time for crits. I’ll start off with a teeny nitpick before deep diving - the art was pretty damn excellent, but one panel stuck out to me as off amongst everything else - the kiss on page 4. Their lips bulge out in an unnatural way, especially Hunter’s, and with the shading it either looked like his lips were on his chin or floating a little aways from his face. And now for the deep dive. I definitely agree with Footini in that I can find little fault with the art, but the story felt all over the place to me. CHARACTERS The connection between the Defenders feels tenuous at best, and makes no sense at worse. From the minute the first ones were introduced, I found myself going “wait, what?”. Why would Chica and Ma pair up, what connection do they have, what reason does she have to listen to him? Why do they just take Klepp along, who to them is just a rando they hit with their car? Talon asks Hunter for help immediately after trying to kill him. Hunter watches Kubo transform, but neither he nor Gray comment on it until several pages later. The delay from Hunter and total lack of reaction from Gray to this demon fox felt strange, especially because Gray immediately starts talking about Miller after she succeeds at pulling the collar off. I also agree that several of the Defenders didn’t have much of a presence. CONNECTING SCENES Idk what else to call this section, my bad, but my biggest issue with this comic was how disconnected the scenes felt. For example, on page 7, Ma and co are in the city, having just hit Klepp with the car. On the next page they are already at the beach to greet Miller... and Klepp is still on the hood of the car. It makes it feel as though they’ve teleported, because I find it hard to believe they drove all that way with Klepp still plastered to the hood. Meanwhile, on page 8, the beach appears empty except for those four, but at the end of the page Kubo appears out of nowhere to yell at Klepp. It was very jarring and way too convenient for Kubo to have spotted and identified Klepp from a considerable distance away, and run up to him, all within the space of a few sentences. Pages 14 and 15, I genuinely have no idea what happened. Lily had her flute, is controlling the dead, and then the flute disappears and she gets killed. Where did it go? Why did the dead attack? Even though your side was told in chronological order and the Defenders’ jumped back and forth, I actually had a far easier time following the events in their half. The jumps between characters and events felt random in this comic, whereas with the Defenders, it felt more clear. For example, they mention Kubo at the end of page 9, then cut to Kubo on the following page. GENERAL STORYTELLING The impact of the ending was slightly lessened for me as pretty early on in the comic, Hunter tells Gray she needs to stay alive, and she agrees. A similar exchange happens later on. She’s already shown that she thinks she’s alive, in a throwaway moment. Hunter’s death hit me, but Gray’s admittance did not. Her change of heart also felt too quick for me - I know a hugely impactful thing has happened to her, but the turnaround still felt a bit too immediate. I think even a few panels of her contemplating the Reaper necklace would have helped. I do have to say though, even if story clarity was off, the clarity in terms of character was VERY good. Though I know OF all of the characters involved in Arma, I’ve only really kept up with Talon. I’ve read any comics that have come out during my time on Void, but didn’t go through character archives before reading this, yet I knew exactly what each character was about and wasn’t confused by the ending. Hell, aside from the prologue, I’d read zero Hunter comics, but his powers and relationship with Gray were very clear to me. And the ending still punched me in the gut even though I hadn’t followed their journey ;;; Gray saying she’ll follow him, damn.shencrow
WOW YOU GUYS! This was SO GOOD!!! I have pretty much nothing but praise for your comic; I only have a couple nitpicks really. But first, I gotta list all the things that really stood out to me: I love that you included not just the defenders on the cover, but also other characters who have played a meaningful role in the lives of the characters involved! I'm also living for this refined southern gentleman accent Ma has. Also, the way you portrayed his mind powers is really cool. I love the way it breaks out of a paneling structure, imitating the way thoughts tend to drift from one to another and blend together in our brains. I love the sheer number of cameos and references you included; it really makes the threat of Arma feel that much bigger, because it's not just the defenders who die if they lose, but all of us. I also love how you capitalized on Gray's relationship with Miller and how he regrets letting her get away with helping Bayou and Bog previously. I love that you took the time to search for the real Klepp, even if ultimately the whole search was meaningless for them. It kind of just highlighted the despair of people being unable to stop Gray and Hunter. T also find Gray and Hunter's arguments intriguing; it really shows how manipulative and unstable Gray is, and how Hunter is fighting a losing battle by trying to do his job while also protecting and working with her. You can see how he's been blinded by love, and it's messed with his ability to reason. He even lets himself die because of it. And as much as he's making a mistake, I appreciate that he's accepted all of her sins, including her infidelity. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing among all of Hunter's other mistakes, but it's a different kind of experience compared to what you usually see happening. And of course, I love that ultimately Gray admitted that she knew she was alive. Her mind was really laid bare in this comic, and it felt like she finally let go of all of her lying to herself. Who knows if that'll stick, but it's still really cool to see it all come together in this comic. There were a few spots where I felt a bit confused in terms of why people were doing things, but not really anything outside of the usual mild confusion I get when reading comics with lots of characters in them. My only real confusion came from the ending; I'm not clear on how Gray became a reaper. It clearly has something to do with the amulet, and maybe that's something that's come up in past comics that I'm just forgetting, but it threw me off. Her apparent shift into peace and realizing her mistakes is mysterious as well, but in a good way. It makes me want to see more of her ;-; In the end, all I can really say is that you guys made a SPECTACULAR comic that is visually stunning, takes full advantage of character relationships and cameos to make everything feel real and grounded, and took some really cool risks with visual storytelling that absolutely paid off. I can't legally take sides on this battle, but I'm rooting for you ;)defenders
God, this comic was a work of art! It felt like watching a full-length movie, complete with twists, infighting, desperate last-minute plans, and reaching from the brink of defeat to obtain victory. The visuals were stunning throughout, and you guys did an amazing job of meshing your styles together to the point that I barely noticed when different people took over the comic. A lot of this is sort of my live reaction, but I'll give my overall impressions at the end. idk why, but it took me a while to realize that we were hopping back and forth in time between the final confrontation and all the work leading up to it. It might have been easier if you had employed different color schemes for flashbacks, but any sort of indicator that a certain page was part of a flashback would have been helpful. Once I understood what was happening, I loved how you structured this comic! Showing each new character show up or participate and then jumping back to them getting involved in the group effort to stop Gray and Hunter was really cool, and it did a lot to explain how all of these people ended up working together when a lot of them have never met each other. The way you portrayed Ma's "speech" was awesome. It communicated both the ridiculousness of his existence as fucking SOUP and the fact that he speaks telepathically. "This is finally over" on page 26. Page count: 120. I'm suspicious. OKAY PLOT TWIST. Now things are getting interesting! I'm not sure how I feel about Ma sort of stealing the spotlight from the Arma threat, but I'm still only a fraction of the way through this comic, so I'll reserve my judgment. (Update: nope, the threats get plenty of time to shine) Big OH SHIT to page 39. That's some graphic stuff right there, and I love how Klepp's recent BB really set us up to understand why he's suddenly going to such great lengths. I feel so gross just thinking about it though *shudder* God Klepp is so fucking badass you guys, I can't even express how great he is. It's about time we saw him make use of all that shit he's been hoarding all this time. I love how you both brought every character's previous stories into this comic, and furthered everyone's story into the next chapter. Everyone is different because of this event is a solid and tangible sense. I can't say piloting Deus was completely a surprise, but it was still fun to see it happen. I love this relationship between Luz and Kubo that is somewhere between parasitic and symbiotic in a way. I love how high the stakes were throughout, with everyone working towards their own personal goals. Chica ripping out Gray's heart just as Miller saved her from killing herself was a beautifully tragic moment, and gave her a powerful closure to her plotline in this comic. I'm not sure if I like how insecure/unstable Hunter seemed to be in this comic, although it makes sense that he'd be upset over Gray's obsession with Miller. I love that both comics used that relationship, but to very different ends. I could go on in detail about every single plot point and it wouldn't be enough haha. I loved this whole thing, and would be hard pressed to point to any comic on VOID that's better. It really feels like everyone was able to bring out their characters' potential, and I hope you all had as much fun writing and drawing this comic as I did reading it! I know you all worked hard (probably too hard tbh), and you've earned all the positivity and HOPEFULLY SOME REST TIME.