Comic Books

Is It Good? Trillium #5 Review

December 4, 2013

After taking a break for a month from reviewing Trillium, I’m back and ready to help answer the most important question surrounding this new issue: Is it good?

Trillium #5 (Vertigo Comics)

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After the events of the last issue, Nika and William end up back in their homes without a scratch. Nika’s back in a steampunk England and William is back working for the Colony, dealing with the upcoming threat of Caul. Everything seems to be perfectly fine and everybody is acting normal, but the two of them can’t help but think that there is something amiss with the situation.

Yep, everything is perfectly normal here.

Okay, nothing is normal here at all if you at all read the past four issues (and if you haven’t, then why are you here now?). Both of the main characters’ worlds are completely different and that’s a pretty interesting twist if you ask me. It makes reading the issue very interesting as we see the characters in their “lives” interacting with everyone and learning about their histories. It makes reading this mini-series feel fresh, like the audience is playing chess and suddenly, they switch colors with the opposite player. Everything has changed.

Along with the story change, the way the comic is laid out and presented has also changed. Nika’s story takes place at the top of the page and is presented in Jose Villarrubia’s coloring (a bit darker and flatter in a way). William’s story takes place on the bottom, is upside down (that story begins at the back of the issue, since you get the ending to it on the first page), and is done in watercolors by Jeff Lemire. This makes for a very unique experience reading the comic and is again, rather creative and continues with the trend of odd ways the comic tells its story. There’s just not going to be another book out there that’ll be this special in the way it presents its story.

This part of the story would be upside down normally and at the end of the book.

What has not changed at all, thankfully, is the quality of the story. The characters, even though the story has changed basically everything on us, are still well written and fully realized. It’s all done in simple words, feelings, and looks exchanged between everyone. The mysteries, especially how everything flipped on us, are still interesting and really make you want to know more about what is going on. It’s hard to tell how much the story has progressed with these events, but there’s no decompression anywhere and you’ll easily be drawn in and fully engaged by everything happening in the story.

The artwork by Jeff Lemire really helps cement the whole thing. Besides the terrific use of colors and layouts, the characters all remain unique and easily distinguishable, even in their new outfits. The characters themselves are very lively with their expressions and body movements, helping strengthen the emotions and tone going on in the scenes. Both worlds presented are great to look at it, seeing all of the little or big changes that has happened. Just a very fantastic looking book.

It all seems very simple with the art at a glance, but it’s really not.

9.5

Story changes almost everything, but still remains so involving.
The characters are very well done.

The artwork, from coloring to layouts, are incredible.

So, did the story actually go anywhere?

Is It Good?

Trillium #5 pretty much took everything we knew about the series and spun it around, twisting and changing aspects of it so that it feels all different, but incredibly engaging. The characters are still great, the storytelling is completely unique, the artwork is outstanding, and the story is completely intriguing. The second half to Trillium is off to a fantastic start and you should be there.