I was pleased to find this title available as I had missed some of the ongoing issues from this series and wanted to catch up without having to buy individual issues. Sadly, it is not the complete 'Omnibus' I had hoped it would be, but instead, ends on an almighty cliffhanger. This was a big disappointment for me as I had erroneously assumed it would be the whole comic book saga. Hitting the ''To Be Concluded' message on the last page had me flipping back and forward through the comic to see if I had jumped over 'Black Flower' by accident. Apparently this is a forthcoming title in the series.
Technically, the book is superb. Crystal clear art and vibrant colours abound. My only criticism of the art is that it varies dramatically over the course of the collection; starting in 'Lastday' with the crisp, tight and beautiful images by Gete, Baker and Lowe, shifting to a more gritty and rough style in issues (chapters) 5 and 6. Jacob Bear replacing Daniel Gete and Joseph Baker for these two issues.
'Aftermath' ushers in a new story and another artistic team; Phillip Simpson and Bernie Lee. Simpson changes the look of the Logan Universe yet again, opting for almost an oil on canvas style and very elongated characters. I liked it, but nowhere near as much as Daniel Gete's intricate style used in the first four issues (chapters). It did Simpson no favours to bring in another team to handle the flashback sequence told in issue 4 (Chapter 10) of 'Aftermath' (Mike Dorman and Aurelio Alfonso) and have them emulate Gete's style, with pages apparently done by Simpson bookending the chapter. Issue 5 (Chapter 11) sees further changes with Angel Luis Bernuy and Juan Francisco Martin taking the artistic helm. Their work echoes the last two installments of 'Lastday', being far rougher, almost naive. The same applies to issue 6 (Chapter 12) with Carsten Biernat and Jesse Heagy, though to a far lesser extent. There is more evidence of a tighter, neater form which is necessary in the man made environments portrayed.
'Solo', the only One-Shot in the Logan's Run Bluewater Comics run, is a well written, tense retelling of the 'Little War' and the events leading up to the establishment of the new order under control of the Thinker(s) from a new perspective. It also cleverly lays some groundwork for 'Rebirth', the next multi issue title in the series.
'Rebirth' is the first story in this series of comics that deviates almost entirely from William F. Nolan's Trilogy of Logan novels. It too is well written, but suffers from changing artists for almost every issue. I found this problematic in that characters did not maintain the same look through out. As this story is more of an ensemble piece, playing 'who's who' becomes essential to keeping up.
As far as the story goes, I have no criticism. The writing team (including William F. Nolan) certainly respect the source material, and while there are some profound deviations made from the original novels, I can understand that these changes were rather necessary in order for the narrative to remain consistent.
While it may sound as though I'm being overly critical of the artists involved in the series, I'm really not meaning that. The point I'm trying to make is more of a personal preference issue. I really do prefer an ongoing comic title to maintain a consistent style. Daniel Gete set a very high bar at the outset, and I feel the later issues would have been far more enjoyable, for me at least, if the artists had tried to follow in the footsteps of those that had come before. I certainly don't mean copy their work exactly, but at least get closer than they did.
Overall, this collection is worth the money. It does collect all the currently available issues in this title, but is NOT a complete story (which an Omnibus really should be). If you don't own all the issues, this is certainly a more cost effective way to catch up. It even beats the price of the previously released TPBs and One-Shot.
If you are a fan of Logan's ongoing run, I would definitely recommend picking this up.
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