Broken Frontier

The critically lauded mini-series concludes as nagging questions are answered and one man struggles against Chaos to maintain the Balance.

Talent started off with a bang (quite literally) in the first issue when a commercial airliner crashed into the ocean. Nicholas Dane was on that flight and his sole survival among hundreds brought on a heap of suspicion. That he began to display the talents and recall the memories of his many doomed co-commuters brought him into the center of a deadly conspiracy. Now, as an "Agent of the Balance," Nicholas is finally about discover who his friends and enemies are and to what ends he has been given these gifts.

The writers spent most of the first three issues of this series laying groundwork. This left them and the readers with a lot of questions, primarily: can they actually finish this story in one issue? The answer to that would be: yes and no. With this conclusion, they do answer some of the most nagging questions--who are the Cardinals, who is the angelic presence from the crash, why is everyone after Dane, etc. However, eventhough we get satisfying answers to most of those questions, we aren’t given everything. The most telling proof of this is that the ending appears to have been written as a clear message that more will be coming. The story therefore seems incomplete, even though I suppose the metaphorical point--that the battle between good and evil will always rage on--is sufficiently documented.

I’ve said it before and I must reiterate: Paul Azaceta isn’t going to be standing on any awards podiums in the near future--his work is just too dark and "unclean." However, what he does, he does well. The writing calls for a variety of action and emotion, and Azaceta does both very well. The only hiccup I saw in his work this issue--and this may be the writing as well--was a glaring but forgivable blunder seen in a chaotic action sequence inside a theater. Otherwise his storytelling was well received.

I want to see more, even though the sudden ending left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. That might be in part to the Hollywood happenings surrounding the story, or perhaps The Further Talents of Nicholas Dane or some such will be offered on the heels of this successful series. I wouldn’t be surprised either way.