During the halt, the anti-masismo sendup, a socially disabled central figure like Tiller Darden, with a bit of toxic masculinity fantasy taking place during the halt, first cast as a villain and later as fast stories, philosophy, and awful people.
In the opening sequence, what stands in stasis is watching Riker stand up to a bar full of homophobic bikers. He does that in two ways. By exploiting the book’s central premise, by weaponizing the inherent wristbands that make central characters invincible and biker’s inherent bias against queer people. This sounds like a blushing sound at first and totally honorable. However, the tone of Riker showing off his fake sexuality is closer to intolerance itself. But hey, guys aren’t our main characters, right? This book spends the first half to assure him that he is a sociopath, a cold-blooded murderer, and something like an ultra commander who goes offbook and kills him with extreme violence. A man kills a puppy for God.
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The problem is that this book doesn’t present a counter to this Snide anti-social mouthpiece. Colin, another major character in the book, is ostensibly our “hero.” He invents watches and tries to stop Riker by recreating technology. However, Colin is a vapid creature, morally pure by implication, but silent to execution. When Riker downplays the tattoo barista and seeks an analogy of Paris Hilton, who is (hardly) fame, Colin is trying to zero his opinion at all. The self-righteous, unspoken parody of sociopathic philosophy becomes the book’s only social commentary. It is a dangerous territory that exists. It lends books. It is, by its creator, a morally bankrupt atmosphere.
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This isn’t to say that the creators were trying to create a manifesto, but the anti-social central character seems to lose the bad guy who will cast somewhere along the way in the runtime of issue 8. He becomes the book’s tragic hero, undermining the reader’s ability to shrug his bad behavior. If this is our good man, shouldn’t we read as simply misunderstanding his previous atrocities?
The mission is successful, burned out with enough drugs, women and alcohol, Riker becomes a tragic figure who ggles for redemption, and the book responds irresponsibly to that call. Training and Tai Chi Montage practices Riker’s demons, hope washes away his Vitritic personality with soap. All this will be faced in time to counter the sudden introduction of super assassins at similar times set in two by vaguely threatening governments.
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Stop is built sloppy. The sequence plays in a confusing order, with the characters creating moral and social aspects, with the plot interrupting in the middle and redirecting. The book’s arrogant antisocial attitude was not malicious. Instead, the boredom of the creator’s story seems to have hampered my commitment to tidying up the theme. There’s a big, impressive swing. The book is completely wide-rangingly screened and horizontal pages, and its central time stop conceit is compelling. But in the end, the book cannot lean towards these strengths, instead becoming suspicious intent.
“Stop” Vol. 1Sloppy, accidentally anti-social adventure
Stop vol. 1
With questionable messaging and sloppy narrative structure, the halt sends unclear messages about social disability and reimbursement.
Interesting ideas.
Persuasive form of intent.
Stories sloppy.
Philosophically misfires.
