by xarielx » October 19th, 2014, 4:53 pm
A review of "THE DIVISION: NIGHT MOVES, THE FINALE". I hope this isn't seen as overly criticial to the creators.
Misplaced expectations can make or break my enjoyment of a story before ever opening a page.Thinking of Night Moves as a whole, then, was my misstep, because while it's certainly awash
in sexual imagery, mind control, and pushes the right buttons, it places far more emphasis on pushing plot, where I think it could be far better served to have gone in another direction, an either permanent mind control scenario or none, now that all is said and done.
The plot is so relevant in this case I think, as Justice Woman meanders from having returned from dolldom, a fate that I believe she should have been stuck to, to play her previous lithe role, and she fundamentally can't. This was my main issue with the finale, the character development, the artwork, the callbacks to previous issues were top notch as always.
Having Justice Woman almost play the lead heroine after essentially being AWOL after issue #2, as we've learned, and perform that role to bring back a Gallant Girl/Cora that had been her doppelganger rang a touch unbelievable. All signs, after Cora's reconversion, pointed to an enraged Plastique dolling Justice Woman, thus sealing this ill-fated tale. Ultimately I felt this finale did not resolve the underlying issue of this trio of do-gooders in a city that tends to corrupt even the most stalwart heroes. Referencing Haven from "A Seductive Path", SHAN from "Synthetic", although the "CORE" heroines remain to be seen, 2 of them in Uzo's previous issueswere no doubt corrupted or controlled fully.
In closing, I believe I wasn't let down, more my expectations were higher than they should have been. The story is strong, but to drive the plot in the way it played out, I felt certain character developments were lost. Plastique had no reason whatsoever to let Justice Woman go, and despite Justice Woman's nonchalant behavior to the BDSM version of her friend, she seemed prettywell broken and ready for anything. With the re-emergence of Miss Tricks, a real highlight in the finale, a lone Plastique surrounded by the mindless sex dolls that used to be her life would have been a poignant end to an epic series.