Peter Panzerfaust #8 Review

I think most of us at IGN Comics are suckers for animal-themed comics. Especially the sad, emotionally wrenching animal-themed comics. Well, Peter Panzerfaust shifts gears a bit in the opening pages of issue #8. Kurtis Wiebe takes the time to explore the whereabouts of Nana, the poor dog left behind when the Darlings made their airborne escape. This segment isn't unrelated to the larger plot. Instead, Wiebe uses Nana's plight to illustrate the larger struggles of loneliness and abandonment that plague all of the protagonists. It's a profoundly moving passage that illustrates the storytelling heights this series is capable of. And if Nana isn't eventually given some sort of Homeward Bound-style happy resolution, I'm going to have an emotional breakdown and burn all my Peter Panzerfaust issues one by one.

Besides being the highlight of the series to date, this opening sequence helps shake up the formula and move the book away from the familiar system of flash-forward openings and transitions back into the past. Wiebe quickly shifts gears again into full-on action mode as Peter and the gang attempt another rescue of Felix. It's a tense script that's expertly rendered by Tyler Jenkins. The previous shoot-out between the Lost Boys and the Nazis had some framing issues, but the storytelling here is impeccable. What the series may lack in fine detail it makes up for it mood and expression.

One area the book could still use some fine-tuning is the formulaic cliffhangers. Wiebe has a tendency to end each issue with the debut of another familiar Peter Pan character. When working with books like this that take a familiar franchise and morph it into something dramatically new, it's best not to rely overly much on those "Hey, look! It's this person you know, but they're different!" sorts of moments. And generally, the series has done a good job of that. Peter Panzerfaust isn't too beholden to the Peter Pan mythology, and it can easily be enjoyed absent any knowledge of it. But the cliffhangers alone continue to fall back on that approach. But sooner or later that will have to change, as Wiebe will eventually out of iconic Pan characters to induct into the book.

Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.

Source : ign[dot]com