Nottingham #5

Nottingham #5

Mad Cave Studios 2021

Written by David Hazan

Illustrated by Shane Connery Volk

Coloured by Luca Romano

Lettered by Joamette Gil

Everything comes to a boil and Sheriff comes face to face with Hood and the rest of the Merry Men. Witness the conclusion to the first arc of the smash hit series!

Well this may be the conclusion to the first arc but with all the death and destruction we’re seeing within these pages I’m not sure how much of a second arc there can be unless of course what David has in store for us isn’t the death of as many key characters as I would have thought. Though lets be honest it all boils down to the Sheriff, the Hood and Maid Marian still being alive to carry one the story. The Merry Men and the denizens of Nottingham really are secondary to everything else and I kind of like this brutal honesty that comes with that realisation. This may also be the first time I’m seeing the Sheriff, who is a complete and utter dick, be the actual good guy in this story considering how we are seeing Robin being portrayed. I am actually very much enjoying how we’re seeing the script flipped throughout all this.

I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter is impressive in how the characters are portrayed. The pacing here is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story I have become more and more impressed by what I am seeing.

I appreciate how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, evolve and strengthen not to mention emerge anew. The layers contain this amazing characterisation, the plot twists and revelations and some of the other good bits and whether they work with the main arc or simply swirl around it they add depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is perfectly achieved.

Now I am not the biggest fan of the interiors here. That cloak the Sheriff wears makes him look like a hunchback and that nose of god that just doesn’t seem like it fits that face, and to me it looks like its a penis on his face. I wish the characters had the same kind of attention to detail that the backgrounds do, a much more crisp, clean and streamlined approach to them. This isn’t to say Shane isn’t a talented artist it’s just not what I would gravitate towards. How we see the composition within the panels and how they bring us depth perception, a sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is very well achieved. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows he can construct a good story visually. The colour work is well rendered. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work really is rather extremely well rendered.

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This is a great story and it takes everything you thought you knew about the legend of Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men and twists it to a point where you have no idea who they are and what they are capable of. So what roles do loyalty, friendship and honour play in this version? You’ll have to read the story to find out but with this level of writing and characterisation you’ll find yourself wanting to spend more and more time in this world.