"The Strange Talent, The Legend, and The Legacy of Luther Strode" Too Short For It's Own Good

 

    I remember seeing someone post a page from The Legacy of Luther Strode. I felt as if the "messaging" was a bit vague, and the person who talked about it did say that they weren't sure if they agreed with the message, and I have to say, I kind of agree. Not to say that this comic book is particularly profound or anything like that, in fact I'd argue it's trying to be something it simply cannot be. For instance, I also saw somebody online describe this comic as "If Superman grew up with no morals," and I yet again also have to vehemently disagree. The bones of maybe an interesting concept are there, but there are simply too few bones given to readers to truly make anything special. Let's talk about it.

    Luther Strode's fundamental issue is that it is simply too short. I would say almost all of it's issue's could be fixed if Jordan and co. made this comic longer than six issues per section, totaling to a measly 18 issues in total. The reason I say this is because the best parts of this comic are the issues. While technically no one has any exceptional powers other than super strength, speed and durability, I'd say the comic does a good job of making the fights feel quite inventive with the ways they utilize these powers, and as such the fights never really get old.

    The only issue? The comics are literally just the fights/the chases. It's simply too little to go into the philosophies/driving forces behind Luther in any of the sections. It doesn't help that there's a time jump between every single section, and then it jumps right back into action, so you don't ever really feel like there's time to reflect on and explore what changed. Like in The Legacy of Luther Strode he just becomes super strong, and is like "let me talk down everyone." There's nothing profound about what he's doing, he's just fighting back against a villain whose main motivation is basically "might is right," and he's just like "but what if it wasn't?" and the villains somehow just act like he's the first to explain the concept of mercy to them.

    It's just too short and as such every single exploration into the different mindsets between the characters feels too shallow. This also means that there is very little emotional payoff to anything in this comic. I had to search up who Delilah was again, because she randomly appeared in the third comic and they kept on mentioning how she appeared the first time and I was just confused. 

    That's not to say the comic isn't worth reading. It's short enough that I'd say you might enjoy it more than I did. It's just that I find it hard to extract much meaning from the message it attempted to convey when about 80% of the panels are dedicated to violence/killing/fighting. I will say though, I do wish they spent more time on Cain. Not only his origins but also just why he was chained up, and how he supposedly controlled the entire world, and the Hercules method, just any of it, all of it, please.

Final Score: 60/100

    Have I been reading a lot of comic book series lately? I would say so, Twitter has been recommending me a lot of comic books as of late and I've noticed that I'm enjoying them more. I just think it's good to supplement the reading I already do and provide some variety instead of me just spamming the usual TV Show, Movie, Video Game cycle. Though realistically these days it's just a lot of video game reviews. I'm tempted to just review the OG Tomb Raider 1 like right now. I don't know if I have the stomach to finish any of those OG games, yet I find myself reinstalling it and slowly force feeding myself to play like a level a day it's kind of sad to be honest. It' just not that good and I really wanted it to be better.