

The John Wick movies are, above all, visual stunners that make the most of color and framing and great camera work. It remains to be seen how much of an actual character arc this book is going to have.
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Though that raises another problem - a much as this version of John looks and acts and fights like the movie version, how much room for character growth is there, exactly? We're supposed to witness the rise of a killer, but it's as if John sprung from the assassin's womb fully formed and already cranky as hell. His John Wick certainly sounds like Keanu Reeves - a gruff man content to exist in his own, quiet little world until forced to take action. At least writer Greg Pak channels the tone and cadence of the movies with the rest of his script. The interplay between recent past and distant past isn't handled very elegantly, and those brief childhood scenes don't wind up telling us very much about the character. Sadly, the latter element is almost entirely superfluous. In addition to following his rise up the ranks, this comic also aims to flesh out his childhood as a reckless street urchin in Baja California. Wick is a rough around the edges freelancer still new to the ways of the underground assassin community.
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Unfortunately, messy fight choreography and a lack of substance to justify the prequel angle (other than a few neat twists here and there) lead this to particular attempt being fairly underwhelming.This series serves as a prequel to the films, unfolding back in a time when Mr. In fact the gritty neo-noir tone of the film series should be wonderfully suited to the world of comics. That’s not to say that John Wick couldn’t work as a comic book or graphic novel series. Ultimately, this miniseries is a bit of disappointment. Granted, film and comics are two very different mediums, but so much would be gained in translation if these fight scenes looked less cluttered. The visceral feel of the film series is lost here, most of all. The fluid, close-contact shootouts of the film series are gone, replaced by hard-to-follow sequences with multiple explosions and characters pointing and screaming, “He’s over there!” It’s very difficult to tell who is firing at who in several instances, with many of the fights being panel after panel of character shooting toward the edge of the page and then being killed.

Unfortunately, the action scenes are another major problem with this miniseries. Wick make an occasional misstep (which he does, but not until a little later in the miniseries).

We expect this from modern-day John, the famed “Baba Yaga,” but it would be nice to see this greener version of Mr. It’s cool to see some more of the ins-and-outs of the Continental, the exclusive hotel/sanctuary of killers-for-hire, though, as well as John’s first real introduction to the Continental’s El Paso location.Īll of this set dressing serves to remind us that John had to start somewhere, but this is somewhat hampered by the fact that John is still taking out every last one of his opponents with little to no problem. As I mentioned at the top of this review, Wick’s mysterious nature is one of the biggest draws to the character, so I don’t necessarily believe that John needs to have a definitive origin story. Still, there are aspects of story that are fun. The result here is a story that somehow feels static even as it attempts to flesh out its lead. It’s difficult to do something new without possibly stepping on the toes of the film or television creators who are normally responsible for the character. This is often a trap that comic adaptations of existing media fall into. This miniseries doesn’t really add anything new to the John Wick story, despite its goals. The thing is, this comic doesn’t fully take advantage of the “prequel” aspect of the story, so the result is brief flashes of John’s childhood that are mainly distracting from a storyline that shows an adult John doing pretty much the same things we’ve already seen him do in the films.
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With a strong moral code and an even stronger stomach, John gets the job done and picks his enemies wisely (usually). John Wick is a man of few words and several principles. Where the comic absolutely succeeds in is the characterization of the title character.
