The art this issue, with the Austin inks, reaches an outstanding level. It makes the comic worthwhile, which is good, since Barr’s plotting is a disaster.
He continues the betrayal subplot, then decides to force an entire issue out of it by contriving a complication. Worse, he keeps complicating the situation to contrive more pages. Sure, the art’s great, but it’s an utterly pointless narrative.
One can see Barr’s outline–this issue ends with the quest for the Holy Grail returning. Why is the Holy Grail important, because of Arthurian legend… but Arthurian legend only has as much to do with Camelot 3000 as Barr forces it to have.
He’s also got this relatively new character (the girlfriend for the girl who used to be a guy) who’s the stupidest human being on the planet. And Barr’s future has a lot of overpopulation.
Or maybe it’s just Barr being lazy.
CREDITS
Betrayal; writer, Mike W. Barr; penciller, Brian Bolland; inker, Terry Austin; colorist, Tatjana Wood; letterer, John Costanza; editor, Len Wein; publisher, DC Comics.
