Forum’s Favourite Thrill - The Order vs. Outlier Round 2 Heat 79

[Southstreeter]

The Order, but it's about time they brought back Ritterstahl - any of them.

[Rogue Judge]

The Order, for the art.

[Link Prime]

The longer The Order continues, the less I care for it.
I don't even want to try to piece the story together anymore.

Outlier never did receive much love, but its a nice slice of dark sci-fi.
And its re-readable.

[Funt Solo]

If it was first series only, The Order would win. But Outlier has the benefit of my knowing what's happening in the story and who all the characters are, and their motivations - which are pretty big benefits when you're being told a story.

Outlier

[Colin YNWA]

Uhhh exciting I have no idea which way this one is going. Possibly in part due to the fact that both start with an O and are of a similar character count so an eye scan through votes doesn't reveal as much quickly. Or maybe this one is really close. Vote today and I'll find out with excitment what the final result it in the morning.

[Sean SD]

Outlier

[moly]

The order

[Tjm86]

Two top rate artists, intriguing antagonists, betrayal, resurrection, boundless questions ...

This one is a tough one on one level but I've got to admit to feeling a little like some of the criticisms of the Order are reasonable.  It's a little hard to track or care about some of the key characters.  It feels like some bits have been thrown together to appeal to older readers.  It seems to be trying a little too hard.

By comparison Outlier is a much tighter piece.  A self-contained universe, a relatively tight set of characters, tight pacing and fairly self-contained 'chapters' that progress the overall story.  Working within the constraints of the world it is set in and not really messing around that much.

So on balance I would argue that Outlier is the stronger of the two. 

TLDR:  Outlier.

[Colin YNWA]

VOTING CLOSED

Well I said it was close, but I didn't know how close. We've not had one of these for quite a while, in fact the first since week 1 of this Round. A tie and so the result goes to the penalty shootout of my opinion. Here its pretty straigthforward. I'm a big fan of Outlier. Re-reading it recently its a solid piece of sci-fi that escalates and raises the stakes as the story progresses, but always keeps its human heart. Its a fantastic thrill... but its not

The Order

which is simply brilliant. Its wide cast of characters and ambitious scope do mean its hard to follow, but its well worth the effort. As that cast is engaging and wonderfully created and diverse. That scope and amibition to be admired. A comic that needs work is something to be praised as long as the end result is worth it and with The Order it certainly is and it deserves to drop through a time rip into Round 3 without a doubt and that before we talk John Burns!

[broodblik]

I see Order has been established

[sintec]

Glad to see The Order made it through. I've been abstaining in rounds where I've not read both thrills (which is still quite a few of them). In this case it sounds like that's something I should remedy. Might track down the Meg floppies with Outlier in and add them to the digital reading backlog.