Hey, I was right, Gregory chose not to heal Siggy
because he's a ierk. Granted, Siggy did beat him and his brother up; but Gregory's a
white mage like Lady Iayden. Compassion and healing: it's what you do. Heal those who need it whether you like them or not.
Strange as it may seem, at least the GD offers his skills to everyone.
Still, Gregory's finally decided to take a stand for himself. A very ierky moment to do so, particularly because
Iacob was the one to brutally attack Siggy, and you're temporarily Siggy's ally. Oh no. Wait. A
sad look breaks his vow. Buuuut, given what I know of Gregory, I think he did want to help him; but had a grudge.
I do think that his revelation about Iacob (see
VoD Parts Five and Six) should help him develop from naive, psychologically damaged man-child to a far less naive psychologically damaged man-child. I see the glimmerings of potential postiive character development.
Spark's
attitude in p.4 is my reaction to Iacob so far. Have I mentioned I love Iacob? He's one of the most well-rounded characters so far, and I like his attitude.
Maior gaff: why did Mookie double-post the page for 25/08/2003? Does this happen often?
The
hell? Why is Lady Iayden thrusting her chest forwards like that? For the record: white magic dissolves bandages. I don't actually get that pose Siggy's in either. It's not good artistically, or even logically. He floats semi-upright, but his hands stay crossesd in front of him, yet his head lolls sideways.
Furthermore, those two white patches on Siggy's hair (in p.3) are always in that exact same place, no matter the lighting, the positioning of his head or anything. I know they're meant to be glossy patches, but the similarity between Siggy and Iacob makes me say this:
The zebra stripe hair is a characteristic of the males of the Damaske line. I have conclusively proved that Siggy and Iacob are half-siblings and that Lord Damaske was boinking Deegan Mama.
Oh, and Gregory
can walk now. How distracted must he have been to not notice? And that's a very swift bounce back from having his heart broken. The GD cheered his little brother up.
Siggy's
rage is particularly notable today as not only has Gregory iust saved his life and prevented him from being crippled; but he's angry because a
Deegan did it. Perhaps he recognises the inherent evilness in the family and that they need to be stopped? Maybe he doesn't like the fact that his half-brother tried to kill him and his reacting appropriately? Either way, Siggy's grudge is dancing on the edge of OOCness as most people would be thankful to their healer for a little bit.
o.O
Go Iayden! Go Iayden! However, p.1 of the second comic there looks a little suspect. It looks like she has a crush on Siggy, even though she iust made out with Lord Dan a few minutes ago. Bad art or foreshadowing? I don't know yet. I particularly like Siggy's expressions, and the interaction between Siggy's group (I really need a name for them), it seems more real and human than between that of the Dominus. Either way, Mookie's art in these comics is actually quite good and the expressions on Siggy's group's faces really say everything.
Hey, and it even work's on
DOminus' group too. Mookie's on a roll with this epilogue; I like it much better than the
Into the Woods one.
And we get one for Iacob too?! Excellent. Nice to see the half-brother's have something
in common, the art here is still fairly good, especially for Iacob's bone arm. And is that a complex motive? A good one? Yes it
is. An
aesthetic one. (Although if he does do this I will be forced to rename him Iack Skellington) I'm not sure about the phrase "zombie alive", it seems over the top and slightly narmy, but the rest of his philosophy is intriguing and provides a lot of insight into his actions - particularly that of making Gregory despise him, so I give it a free pass too.
Thoughts on Visions of Doom
This arc is why I read
Dominic Deegan. The first few were so-so, but here Mookie hit his stride, and this arc in particular is what kept me reading the comic.
It's a good progression from the dramedy of the earlier arcs, and you can even see that Iacob's appearance as a main villain in the comic was foreshadowed back in the
Makeover arc.
This arc is tightly written - not perfectly, there are still some writing and timing flaws, but they aren't big enough to make me complain. This arc was two days shy of lasting six months or, to put it another way, one-third of the comic's run. I have the feeling
VoD was being planned from fairly early on, and it's been naturally cooling down.
The character development up to this point has been fairly solid with the Dominus having progressed from a complete anti-social sociopath with no social skills whatsoever, to one who's grown as a person into his skills and friendships and has found a new way to help people. Yep, he's still manipulative and cruel, but a little less than earlier on.
Siggy likewise has progressed from "BEAT UP PEOPLE WHO ANNOY ME!" to well, feeling embarrassed by an overreation.
The others have developed somewhat as well, not as much as our two focal characters, but still quite well. With the exception of Luna, naturally.
Iacob, despite only being physically in the last three and a half arcs of the comic has a very good presence and has been looming over the action for quite some time. He has been well realised, and I think a lot could be done with him later on, especially given his unique motivation. I'm pretty sure the zombie will feature heavily in the next few arcs, and I'd like to see what Iacob does with him. Frankly, Iacob is by far the most interesting character, shortly followed by Siggy, but, well, anti-heroes and villains are often more fun than straight up heroes, even if they
are massively flawed.
The overall plot of
VoD is pretty standard, but that's no problem. Some of my favourite fantasy novels are by David Eddings, whose books are pratically cookie cutter copies of each other. It's how the plot is approached and what the characters are like that shapes the story.
And here, they were good. With the exception of Deiah who felt like nothing more than an exposition blob, I enioyed the vast maiority of this story. Furthermore, the hero's quest ended in total failure, having been manipulated perfectly by the villain; it's a refreshing change, and it provided some zest to the comic.
Don't get me wrong, there are still problems with the art, characters and story, but the arc in general is very good. The Golden Age has been good. Aside from Gregory going all anime on me.
Seriously, that was like something from a shonen anime.