Matthew's Reviews > Frank Miller's Sin City Volume 5: Family Values 3rd Edition (Sin City

Well, this brings a great series to a screeching halt. 2.5 stars – I am rounding up to 3 because of track record with this series, but this volume really fell flat. Looking at some other reviews, it seems I am not alone.



Maybe if it was not part of such a great series it would not stand out so much to me as a dud. Sure it has a few twists and a couple of interesting points, but it just isn’t fleshed out like the previous titles. It felt like I was going from Shakespeare to a Kindergarten reading primer. From The Godfather to Howard the Duck (now, I loved Howard the Duck, but I figure people would recognize it as a movie generally panned by movie goers and critics alike!) I wanted to love it as much of the previous ones, but I just couldn’t.



The story is very straight-forward and linear. Maybe this was on purpose as the others ones are not – they have complex relationships, layered characters, twists and turns, etc. – and Miller wanted to be different this time. Instead, it just felt blah. The first time you meet and learn about each character, that is who they are till the very end. Maybe okay in some cases, but it just was not what I have come to expect with Sin City.



Filler – so much filler! This story probably could have been told and had the same impact in 10 pages. Lots of repetitive action frames and plot points revisited (which isn’t super-necessary in a plot as linear as this one). And, there was so much potential background on the story that feels like it could have been fleshed out and just wasn’t. Instead, we just get more fight scenes and good guys trying to sound all tough to the bad guys.



The artwork felt like it got lazy. Miller established a pretty awesome black/white contrast comic book art form with the Sin City series - and here it got sloppy. There were a few frames that hit the old glory, but most of it ran together so much it was hard to tell what was going on. This was the first Sin City where I had to stare at some of the panels for a long time to figure out what I was looking at. Also, and maybe this was done just to contrast with everything else in the volume, but Miho was so bland and one dimensional that it was distracting. I was not impressed with any of the Miho artwork (not that I could do any better, but as a consumer I have come to expect more from this product!)



So, I am just a guy who has been enjoying this series and, maybe for you, my opinions on it will be totally off base. When I have become used to a stellar product, it is more likely that my opinion is going to be stronger. If this was the first Sin City volume, I probably would not have had quite so many issues. I am hoping the next one returns to form!