A month ago, I wrote a glowing review for Michael Oeming’s The Victories #1. I was so happy to be reading an ongoing about a new superhero team that didn’t have to stick towards the strict family-friendly guidelines that books at Marvel and DC have to do that I couldn’t stop myself from writing my longest review on a single issue to date. It also left me wondering where the series came from and what kind of future it would have. Now that I’ve looked at The Victories #2 and The Victories: Touched, I can only say that the future of this ongoing…really looks like a mixed bag. This is a long one folks, so hang on tight. Let’s do this.
Let’s start with The Victories: Touched, the original miniseries that spawned the full ongoing. Honestly, I didn’t really care for it. The story focuses on Faustus, one of the key members of the Victories, a team of superheroes during the time of…well, actually, despite being a prequel series to that first issue I reviewed, there’s a lot less setup here, just letting the world speak for itself. Honestly, given how well the opening narration built the world in the first issue, I wish there was more here, but I guess it’s not all that relevant.
It’s hard to talk about the plot of this one without giving it away, but the basic gist is that Sai, another team member, asks Faustus to track down his brother, a former hero turned drug addict known as The Strike. You might remember me talking about the Strike in the last issue as a really interesting character I wish I knew more about. Well, it turns out that Strike used to study at The Mark’s School of Self-Defense with Faustus, but they don’t get along anymore, as he blames Faustus for what happened during their training. In this volume, he’s a lot more bitter and angry than he appeared in the ongoing, so it will be interesting to see how Oeming ties the two series together, though I definitely hope he sticks more to his current persona as this mysterious being taking advantage of his deformities in the shadows of this newly darkened world.
The rest of the story is…really, really dark. I’m serious. If you’re one of those people with a faint heart, or you’re thinking of buying this for a younger person because there are superheroes involved, don’t do it. I will give Oeming a lot of credit for his decision, though. I’m not sure if such a dark place was necessary, but it was an interesting take on the concept, and the ending really packs a punch, which is all one can really hope for from a story I suppose.
It’s one of those comics that reads better the less you think about it, sadly. There were some odd choices that really stood out to me. It begins with melodramatic, omniscient narration coming from seemingly nowhere, as the source is never explained. The first chapter has several moments that scream Frank Miller, namely an interview sequence and the first signs that Faustus is clearly an alcoholic; nowadays, that’s not what I’d call a good thing, and it reads as clumsily here as it did there. In the second section, the concept of Float is awkwardly jammed in through a flashback sequence of a character we hadn’t met yet, which made initial reads quite confusing.
And most egregiously, Oeming commits the cardinal sin of giving us first person narration from a character, but refusing to actually give us the full info of what’s happening in his mind. Faustus does this on a regular basis, and it continually irritates me, as it’s a major pet peeve of mine. No one thinks to themselves ‘I hope Vladimir doesn’t discover my secret.’ They think ‘I hope Vladimir doesn’t find out that I’m the one who took twenty dollars from his wallet when he wasn’t looking’ because there’s no reason to hide something like that when it’s your own head. If you want vagueness, stay out of a character’s head. It’s that simple.
The big saving grace for this book is the Jackal, who is the central villain of the miniseries. He presents a very interesting moral dilemma for Faustus, and the dynamic is similar to what would happen if the Punisher decided to mess around with Dick Grayson and show him vigilantism was the only way to get anything done. Actually, the Punisher with the foulest mouth imaginable and a dab of Joker for good measure is probably the best way to describe the Jackal. It’s that captivating personality that keeps you reading this book. Well, that and the glorious art on which Oeming once again delivers.
Do I recommend it for $9.99? Kind of? I know that seems weak, but you are getting five issues here, as well as some interesting art at the back of the book detailing the process of how Faustus and the Jackal came to be, for about $2 each. That’s a major steal in the comic world. As long as you’re aware that the book definitely has its flaws, you can have some fun with it. That said, I will say that it doesn’t compare to the ongoing very well. Characters are far more complex and fleshed out (D.D. Mau especially got a major overhaul between the miniseries and the ongoing that makes her far more interesting) now that Oeming’s had time to figure some things out, so I’d only read it if you’re a completionist or someone who really loves seeing a world come together.
This brings us to The Victories #2, a comic that…is the definition of a mixed bag. I can’t get into the why as much as I did for the miniseries because a single issue only has so much content I can cover without devolving into spoiler territory. While the last issue focussed on D.D. Mau, this one centers on the team’s leader, Metatron, still recovering from his fight with Bacchus. While he’s out of sorts and trying to determine the cause of some visions he’s had recently, he and the rest of the Victories must respond to the threat presented by Tarcus, who escaped from jail at the end of the previous issue and is now wreaking carnivorous havoc on civilians and heroes alike.
The best part of this issue by far is Metatron’s character as he’s presented in this issue. Again, I’m not willing to give much away, but his attempts to maintain a strong persona as leader of the group despite being out of sorts presents a lot of depth to his character, and the issues with which he struggles are in equal measures foreign and identifiable. That won’t make sense until you read the issue, but making a character both human and superhuman at the same time is something only the best writers can do, and Oeming does it brilliantly.
What he unfortunately does not handle so brilliantly is the villain of the piece. This is actually starting to look like a trend in this book, so I figure I should throw up the warning signs now while I still can. The Victories is a book about heroes. It is not, however, a book about the villains. As of now, these villains serve as nothing but revolving doors. Even in the miniseries, smaller villains would emerge and take center stage for a chapter before switching back again. And worst of all, any power that one might have seen in Tarcus is taken away by a decision that completely undermines his authority. In an attempt to avoid spoilers, let’s just say I’ve had enough of a certain trend in comics, and seeing it here is disappointing.
For $3.99, you can do far worse than The Victories #2, which earns it my recommendation, if much less strongly than the first issue earned it. The Metatron bits are really well done, the action scenes are a lot of fun, and the art on this series continues to blow me away. That said, I’m starting to worry about the writing of this series, as seeing new villain after new villain with only a tenuous connection at best gets old quickly. Let’s hope this series comes out swinging for issue #3.
Chase Wassenar, aka MaristPlayBoy, is the Lead Editor and Founder of the Red Shirt Crew. He believes in Oeming and loves the heroes; he just wants a villain he can sink his teeth into. Is that so wrong? Probably. You can read his other articles at ToyTMA, follow him on Twitter at @RedShirtCrew or email him at theredshirtcrew@gmail.com.
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