Black Salt

Staff: Chad Boudreau, J.C. Grande, and Santosh Kumar Rath

Overview:

The 80’s called, they want their kung fu movie back… in a good way.

Review:

So apparently Black Salt is adapted from a screenplay for a movie so that sets some precedence as to why it looks so professionally done. Looks like there is a bit of a budget behind the comic (if not- good job! You fooled me!).

Typesetting and layout wise it looks like something you’d see from one of the big publishers so full points for that. There is some weird pixelation with the PDF version so what would have been a flawless review kind of gets the wind taken out of it but it’s not very distracting.

The title of “black salt” didn’t exactly SCREAM 1980s china shaolin kung fu action movie, but hey- it’s not a bad genre choice. They almost lampshade 80s kung fu action movies. The dialogue is sufficiently campy, the expressions and poses are exaggerated, and some cliche lines actually just add to what is ultimately a homage to this sort of thing. Not sure if this is what they are going for, but that’s how I took it.

When we flash forward to present day I can almost SMELL the 80s & 90s on some of these character designs, though they are a more modern twist. On occasion we get some weird body proportions, but what comic isn’t rife with those right? Seriously, this reads like a more modern episode of like a mash up of GI Joe and Ninja Turtles or whatever cookie action show you watched when you were a kid (if you are in your 20s now…). This is complete with contrived acronyms, cops pulling out ridiculous swords and fighting scuzzy looking villains. And believe it or not, I am not hating on this- it’s actually a lot of fun. I’m totally down with the whole “80s action movie” thing. Hell, I could see a young Steven Seagal in this comic’s movie adaptation because his machismo would be right at home.

Now I can’t say the story leapt off the page and grabbed me. I’m not super enthralled. I’m more excited about the dose of nostalgia I got reading this. I’m sure there is more to this than is just here and it’s kinda cool they are going headlong into some kind of movie, collectible line, and all that. I don’t know if there is a premise here to really warrant all that, but I’d be willing to see what they come out with before passing judgement.

Metrics

Art: 7/10 (Professional)

Lettering: 8/10 (Professional)

Plot: 5/10 (80s/90s Nostalgia classes)

Novelty: 3/10 (Nothing new, lot of old)

Overall: 5.75/10

 

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