I'm really fond of this series... I appreciate Paul Jenkin's myth-building and his use of archetypes as short-hand. What I don't care for is the extended tease and dancing around a reveal for the sole purpose of keeping the reader in suspence.
The conceit of the series is that 32 heroes and villains will fight to the death, March Madness style, until one victor remains. There is a purpose to all this beyond simple entertainment, and that reason is revealed to the contestants upon entering the fighting arena, and it's so huge a reason that it makes men and women kill. Of ccourse one the match is over the winner's memory is wiped. The other contestants can't know, for some reason.
The start of this issue has two characters dancing around the reveal at frustrating and unnecessary length. Jenkins is teasing this reveal for too hard that he's hitting the breaking point where the actual reveal might not support the build up.
That complaint aside, I like how he furthers the characters investigation into the hows and whys and what fors and WTFs of their predicament. I'm wondering at this stage how long the series is given that 4issues in the first round is almost complete. I'm guessing 12-issue maxi-series. I'm in for the whole ride.
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