‘Briggs Land: Lone Wolves’ Graphic Novel Review
This comic was released in 2018.
Briggs Land: Lone Wolves graphic novel is a collection of a six-part miniseries that somewhat concluded the Dark Horse comic book series written by Brian Wood, who also created it.
Grace Briggs’ attempt to shore up her leadership of the successionist movement, Briggs Land, that she usurped from her husband while he is in prison, hits a snag when a couple of hikers wander onto their land and her son takes them hostage. This leads to the federal authorities arriving on their doorstep after the hikers’ cell phone pings on a nearby tower. One of her husband’s agents uses this moment to plan a revolt against Grace and her family for leadership, leading to a dramatic showdown between the old guard and the new guard.
The first volume had a more straightforward storyline that I enjoyed a great deal. It had some great artwork and truly presented itself as a family trying to change their isolated community for the better. This second one, not so much.
For one thing, the artwork was all over the place. I know that it is not uncommon to have different artists for the same series, but this is a six-issue miniseries. Having a single artist would have made it better and made it flow a little bit. Issue four in particular was not impressive. It was honestly jarring, the diversion from the principal art style.
As for the plot, I suspect they were planning on doing the third volume because they introduced a LOT of new characters, forgot about old characters, and even seemed to introduce a love interest for one of the sons that seemed to vanish. It was also weird that the federal agents from the first volume were nonexistent after their obvious importance. This made the plot seem incredibly disjointed and almost like we missed something.
I mentioned issue four earlier. It was a waste of paper and ink. It is Grace driving a pregnant teen from the community to possibly get an abortion. The girl changes her mind at the end, so I was happy about that, but it was still out of place from the rest of the series. Like I said, I honestly think this was supposed to start an ongoing series, but that did not materialize, so they just had to kind of wrap it up. I am sad to say that because I really enjoyed volume one.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments below. Tell me if there is a comic book, movie, anime, or novel you would like me to review.