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A review by songwind
Abbott by Saladin Ahmed
4.0
I enjoyed this quite a bit.
The story throws us right in - there's no time spent on origin stories too much background. Enough info comes through in the characters' interactions with one another to get a solid idea of who Abbot is and what she's about. It's the 70s, racial tensions are high, and police accountability is low.
And what she's about is poking her reporter's instincts into the places her city is least comfortable. She has a track record of forcing the main stream press to take note of what's happening to the black community, police excess, and other important but awkward subjects.
She's in the middle of just such a story (about grisly murders in a majority black part of town) when she runs into a masked man wrapped in shadows - shadows very much like the ones that killed her husband.
The heroic deeds and dark secrets aspect of the comic is a fine example of the type. The outgunned heroine, the helpful-yet-annoying mystic adviser, and other aspects are all there and well executed.
The meat of the story, though, is Abbot and her crusade for the truth. It deftly illustrates some of the historical tensions of the time, including some that continue to this day. In the course of the volume, Abbot deals with racism, police harassment, sexism and class warfare. Not to mention her own purely personal pains, like the loss of her late husband or
The art is pretty amazing as well. As though in deference to the setting, the line art and inking evoke a classic comics feel. At the same time the color and details continue to use modern techniques to their fullest.
What keeps this out of the 5-star range for me is mostly pacing. Parts of the story seemed rather abrupt, and I felt like the story could have been told over a few more issues with a bit more investigation and putting facts together.
The story throws us right in - there's no time spent on origin stories too much background. Enough info comes through in the characters' interactions with one another to get a solid idea of who Abbot is and what she's about. It's the 70s, racial tensions are high, and police accountability is low.
And what she's about is poking her reporter's instincts into the places her city is least comfortable. She has a track record of forcing the main stream press to take note of what's happening to the black community, police excess, and other important but awkward subjects.
She's in the middle of just such a story (about grisly murders in a majority black part of town) when she runs into a masked man wrapped in shadows - shadows very much like the ones that killed her husband.
The heroic deeds and dark secrets aspect of the comic is a fine example of the type. The outgunned heroine, the helpful-yet-annoying mystic adviser, and other aspects are all there and well executed.
The meat of the story, though, is Abbot and her crusade for the truth. It deftly illustrates some of the historical tensions of the time, including some that continue to this day. In the course of the volume, Abbot deals with racism, police harassment, sexism and class warfare. Not to mention her own purely personal pains, like the loss of her late husband or
Spoiler
her love of another woman.The art is pretty amazing as well. As though in deference to the setting, the line art and inking evoke a classic comics feel. At the same time the color and details continue to use modern techniques to their fullest.
What keeps this out of the 5-star range for me is mostly pacing. Parts of the story seemed rather abrupt, and I felt like the story could have been told over a few more issues with a bit more investigation and putting facts together.