Imperials

Staff: Liam Kavanagh, Stuart Perrins, Paul Moore, Stuart Patrick

 Overview:

So British you can use the hardcopy as a tea bag.

 Review:

So today I’m looking at Imperials from Red Leaf comics. This comes at me from across the pond (aren’t digital comics wonderful?). from the UK division of Red Leaf. So lets dive into Imperials #1!

…and it’s a super British comic. Not sure what I expected, but yeah, this comic is so British I swear I saw the Union Jack stitched into the protagonist’s underwear. This comic is split into two short stories so I’ll be doing two reviews of each section because they differ pretty heavily.

Lettering is really hit or miss. The introduction page is very difficult to read due to a choice to put a black text over a black and white sketch of a man in power armor. After that little misstep, the comic’s lettering gets a facelift and is near professional grade. Then it switches back to terrible when the comics does some robotic dialogue. The glaring red they use at time really clashes with the rest of an otherwise good lettering job.

The second story has typical lettering and ultimately is pretty solid. Not reinventing the wheel, but good.

Something weird about the art is that every character in the background in the first story seems to be expressing some extreme emotion. I guess that is kind of a counter to the way most comics put laughly little detail into background characters. Then again the expressions on all of these characters seem to be exaggerated. It’s not good or bad, simply a stylistic choice. The costume designs don’t really do anything for me

Otherwise the art in the first story is not typically the style you see in an everyday superhero comic. There is a lot of crosshatching being done and use of pure black backgrounds. The art style seems a bit like a political cartoon you might see in the New Yorker or something. There are some very awkward posing at times but for the most part it’s pretty well done.

The second comic has much better art in my opinion. It takes a much more minimalist approach to the way it’s drawn and even though there is a little less detail, it’s a lot of fun to look at. It seems to have a hint of asian influence to the artstyle, which makes it a very compelling mix of styles.

The plot of the first story is pretty straightforward fair. Supervillain robots attack Parliament, a hero attempts to stop them and gets back up from another one. I wish I could elaborate, but this is really just a lot of exposition. It’s a decent read so don’t skip it, but I’d suggest that you read it only with the intention of reading two or three of them back to back to get some momentum going.

The second story is a much smaller scale story that seemed to go by a bit faster. Though it wasn’t as dense or plot heavy, I enjoyed it a bit more. It was smaller in scope but deeper on characterization. Not every panel serves to progress some big story, it relies on facial expressions and action rather than dialogue. Hats off to you on that.

Overall it’s an odd mix. The first story really lost me in it’s heavy plot, iffy costume choices, and paint-by-numbers feel. It was definitely painted in the colors of the UK flag but it was still pretty generic superhero fare. The second story is the saving grace. It’s a street level story about a cop, robot, and a superhero. A lot of fun to read.

So give it a read. It’s only 99 cents (USD) and it’s 23 pages. It’s a nice little collaboration between some UK (and Canadian) writers and artist.

God save the Queen and all that 😉

 Metrics

Art: 4/10 (Decent but mixed)

Lettering: 4/10 (Lot of good, a little bad)

Plot: 3/10 (It does the pulpy action bit well. I liked it.)

Novelty: 5/10 (New art style, new cast of writers, etc)

Overall: 4/10

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Crunch: Revenge

Staff: Kevin Hill

 Overview:

Pulpy action goodness.

 Review:

So opening up this comic I realize that it is actually the third comic in a set rather than the first (which I normally review) but I was quickly drawn in by the fun quirky style it had. So despite this not normally being the typical review I do, let jump into Crunch: Revenge!

So launching right into it, the art is awesome. It’s got this quirky 80s metal/punk aesthetic going on with some more modern tweaks. I got to say, despite it not being professional grade, it’s damn good and has a style all its own. The lines are crisp, the anatomy (however distended) is generally consistent, the artist displays an understanding of dynamic poses that allow his characters to be as expressive in pose as dialogue (very important for a visual medium), and the displays of motion are fluid and informative. Special not should be given to the perspective some of these shots are drawn from. If this was a movie I’d be giving the director of photography a high five for his excellent work. There are a few awkward facial expressions and poses, but all and all it’s a lot of fun.

The lettering could use some work. Some times I couldn’t tell who was speaking due to the placement of the speech bubbles but I could sus it out generally after looking at it for a moment. A lot of time the lettering is pretty close to the edge of the bubble and that can be a little distracting. They should probably stick to their typically lettering or have the artist draw headline text rather than switching to some other font, it just looks sloppy (see page 8).

The plot is nothing new and that kind of disappoints me a bit. However, when I look at the genre it is going for (pulpy action stuff) I can’t really blame it. Pulp thrives on the known and shines in the execution of said existing story elements and in that context this story gets high marks. In the same way the dialogue is hokey but I can’t tell if that is intentional (al Venture Brothers style) or accidental. Either way it works. I mean we have a vertically challenged main character named “Crunch Crakerton”, how serious can you get with the dialogue?

Overall Crunch: Revenge is a party. It’s a pulpy action comic that doesn’t shy in the face of being as hokey and chock full of anachronisms as possible; in fact it revels in it. I mean the hulky hero has his shirt torn off by page 12 after bantering back and forth with an ex-lover turned villain. You can’t do something like that without going headlong into it. If you half-ass it, it would come off as either a bad parody or knock off of something greater. In this case, Crunch not only jumps in feet first, but it does so wearing it’s puply-action colored speedo.

Metrics

Art: 6/10 (Not publisher grade but very fun)

Lettering: 3/10 (Slip ups and issues)

Plot: 6/10 (It does the pulpy action bit well. I liked it.)

Novelty: 3/10 (Nothing new, but keeps it fresh enough)

Overall: 4.5/10

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Female Force: Nancy Reagan

Staff: Michael Troy, Manuel Diaz, Jeremy Kahn, Alberto Pessoa

Overview:

Educational, just not engaging.

Review:

When I downloaded “Female Force Nancy Reagan” I thought someone had made Nancy Reagan into an action hero with a team of other 1st ladies (Note to self: pitch concept to NBC, I’m sure they are looking for something less offensive than Ironsides). What I got wasn’t that but it was still decent.

Jumping right in, the art’s solid but sometimes it looks traced (see: cover). They use a very vibrant palette and it’s clear this was intended for kids (or at least students). Layout it top notch and lettering is readable. A few times it got a bit small and when superimposed over some really vibrant colors (see page 14 for an example) it got a little hard to read when the text was smaller than expected.

The comic gives a glossy overview of Nancy Reagan’s life from birth until childhood. While good overall, it has a few missteps (it compares Ronald and Nancy to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie?) Sometimes it jumps around chronologically (Example: It’s talking about a rocky relationship with her children then jumps to post presidential life when Ronald had medical issues then back). Then on page  16, for no reason, it jumps into some really disjointed things. It just says, “Consulting an astrologer about her husband’s tactics? Star Wars? Reaganomics? Red Scare Nuclear War?” without giving us the context of what is going on until a page later. It is a very odd jump and implies things that might confuse a kid on the first read without supervision.

This comic was clearly meant for students and was designed to be an educational resource. In that light, yeah it is successful. It is nice to see a comic working to engage kids in an education sense. However, it lacks any sort of passion. It’s paint by numbers. It might as well have come from wikipedia. This falls into the trap that educational TV shows and video games (really, all forms of media) falls into. It tries too hard to educate and not hard enough to engage.

Metrics

Art: 5/10 (Better then expected with some slip ups)

Lettering: 4/10 (Generally pretty good with some mistakes)

Plot: 1/10 (Disjointed and lacks passion)

Novelty: 3/10 (Educational angle saves it)

Overall: 3.25/10

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Witch Hunter

Staff: Vincent Ferrante, Scott & Victor Dominicis

Overview:

It rises above the preconceptions I had going in.

Review:

Wow, I seem to get into a lot of mythical beast hunter style comics this month. The last two were werewolf hunters and vampire hunters (Happy Halloween I guess). But that brings me to an interesting point point- we see this kind of thing a lot. I guess it goes back to characters like Professor Abraham Van Helsing and the like (lets be honest- it goes back WAY father but not in such a direct way). There is something very captivating about man conquering monsters. At it’s core it’s about man conquering himself and the fears that lurk in the dark. The tag line of this comic is, “Witch hunts aren’t about witches. They never were”. A powerful message and it sets the tone well for this comic.  So with that in mind I am hoping Witch Hunter #1 from Monarch Comics cast a spell on me!

The art isn’t professional grade, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t decent. Something I really appreciate is that the first half dozen pages of this comic have no dialogue. We are introduced by a piece of parchment that says a family is wanted for witchcraft then we are told the story entirely visually. Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. I keep saying that comics are a visual medium and takes advantage of this. However, once this ends- we take flight 114 to exposition town USA. We got what happened, we didn’t need an explanation. It almost counteracts the beautiful introduction. Otherwise, the art direction is rather inspired. Some very creative designs that keep the reader guessing if the creatures you see are masks or actual otherworldly entities during a masquerade scene. Even when the comic goes farther into fancy, they retain the creative character designs and build a very strange world. I rather enjoyed the character designs in a madam’s house. It felt like something out of one of Gaiman’s Sandman comics (which are fantastic by the way, so that is high praise).

Something of note is that I really didn’t like the protagonist’s character design. His outfit feels really disjointed. It swings from superhero to fantasy witch hunter. I guess that is the point but they clash a lot. The color pallet just doesn’t match. The purple and white looks fantastic but the dark blues & browns of the rest of his costume are way more down to earth then the “high fantasy” aspects of his outfit. I wish they would go one way or another with this because the basic concept has some real potential to it. The random white eyebrows on the mask I both love and hate. It gives him a mischievous look (which fits him) but sometimes it gets in the way of the character emoting. It reminds me of those pictures where people have drawn eyebrows on dogs a little bit.

Lettering wise this comic is hit and miss. The initial parchment with some text on it was abysmally bad. The in panel dialogue is legible, but a bit hard to read on occasion (the character width was a bit thin). On page 13 we also get this weird interruption where they stuck the credits. It is very distracting and I can’t imagine why they didn’t just do a credits page near the front. Add to that the near illegible nature of them (the thin white characters get lost on the dark blue background) and it is just a jarring stab to the eyes. The last eye-gouger is the name of the next comic on page 38. It looked like someone vomited all over the font and they just decided to use the colors they found it in to make a gradient. Come on! You guys are better than that!

The dialogue isn’t bad. It has some genuine brilliant moments, (“…and bring some milk and chocolate chip cookies.” “Why? Does he need cookies to find my daughter?” “No, he just likes them.”) but then it falls into mediocrity with some very cliche lines. A lot of “witty” characters (Nightwing, Spiderman, the Robins, Gambit, etc) fall into this trap. They try to banter but it just falls flat when a line doesn’t work. It makes them seem like their quips are coming from a place of ignorance rather than intelligence.

The ambiguity of the nature of some characters is a strong point. We are given this fantastic world and we are never sure if we should be employing suspension of belief or not.  Are the witches evil? How about these random rich guys? Is witch hunters good or just in it for the money? It seems like no one has truly clean hands. Sometimes it seems like the comic doesn’t know, but I am giving it the benefit of the doubt that it will build upon this in future issues (I only review the 1st issue of comics).

So to recap, decent art, great use of that art, hit or miss lettering, inspired character design, lackluster protagonist design, dialogue that wavers between great and uninspired, and a story with some fun elements to it. I actually enjoyed this for the most part. I don’t know if “Witch hunts aren’t about witches. They never were” really describes this comic. It is totally about witches, magic, and their persecution. Hey, it’s free. Give it a read!

Metrics

Art: 7/10 (Decent art)

Lettering: 3/10 (Some narley fonts drag it down)

Plot: 6/10 (Decent with some good and bad points)

Novelty: 7/10 (A fun and creative world with inspired characters.)

Overall: 6/10

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Zero Hunters

Staff: Jay Carvajal, Marc Borstel, Federico & Karina Lopizzo, and Carlos Razetto

Overview:

“Vampire” + “film noir” + “cop”. Follow that formula to the letter and you basically have everything in this comic.

Review:

So I’m once again on a vampire book. I’ve stated before that it’s a genre I’m not super fond of, but I’m excited to dig into it. Sometimes this genre surprises me, so let’s sink our fangs into Zero Hunters #1!

The first thing that grabs me is that this is a scifi and I’m a fan of the clean cut modern art style they use in this comic. The lettering is nothing shy of professional grade. There is excellent use of silhouettes (which fits with the tone quite well). Some of the character designs (particularly for some of the vampires) are quite cool, but others lack any real inspiration (including Garrick, the protagonist). This comic also makes great use of this color and takes advantage of the visual medium it uses. Both visuals and script skip happily across the pages of this free 34 page comic.

But I’m afraid that’s where the praise ends. The plot is very simplistic and exposition heavy, the art has a few slip ups (though is generally pretty solid), and the main character is forgettable. A few of the onomatopoeia bugged me as they didn’t exactly jive with the fantastic lettering.

A lot of the plot relies on film noir clichés and stock characters. You can see everything coming and nothing is really new or unique. It seems like someone threw a few darts as a board with ideas tapped to it and came up with “vampire”, “film noir” , “cop” comic. Near the end they get into this interesting plot point about how the protagonist and the antagonist are locked in eternal struggle across multiple lifetimes. A nice little twist, but it doesn’t save the comic.

Ultimately there is a lot of like about this comic but a lot of it falls by the wayside. The plot is cliché, but it has some saving elements. The art is good but it never really rises to the point where it’s noteworthy. The characters are blank slates, though at least they feel like people (through dialogue and action).

Metrics

Art: 7/10 (Decent art)

Lettering: 7/10 (Professional grade)

Plot: 3/10 (Nothing new)

Novelty: 3/10 (Generic)

Overall: 5/10

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Wulfen Prologue: “Teeth”

Staff: Ed Doyle, Liam Kavanagh

Overview:

If werewolves are your thing, give it a read I suppose.

Review:

So today I’ll be sinking my fangs into a werewolf comic. The market is kind of saturated with vampire and steampunk stuff, but at least the werewolf thing came and went pretty quietly. Anyway, lets take a look at Wulfen Prologue: Teeth.

The art on this one isn’t shabby but it’s by no means approaching professional grade. It’s full color but lacks the consistency that comes practice. Sometimes the artwork it pretty decent but then it slips into laziness and it suffers a bit. It’s a shame because it really has the potential to be a very interesting art style. Maybe with a bit more refinement and attention to detail the artist behind this could be downright phenomenal.

The lettering bugs me a little. It’s not bad and it is legible but like with the art, sometimes it looks a bit sloppy. Letters getting close to the edge, things not centered correctly, a few obnoxious bright yellow narration boxes with black text that hurt my eyes a little. Oh and I’m not sure where to mention this so this is as good a point as any but their cover is 3-4 times larger than the other pages so it has the effect of shrinking the others by default (which is a technical issue so I won’t be factoring that into my rating).

Now the characters in the book are pretty one dimensional. We have Wulf, a werewolf hunting outcast werewolf due to the circumstances of his birth (replace “werewolf” with “vampire” and this sounds a little familiar…). The “villains” are generic and serve only as a sounding board for exposition and to demonstrate that Wulf is a badass. I mean he basically lays out all the broad strokes of his background to them while fighting them.

The plot takes a backseat, a wolf was captured because some hunters think it killed some kids. To be honest- I’m with the hunters by the end of this. They did their due diligence to check to make sure it was the one who killed the kids (fangs) and then Wulf comes bursting in and kicks the crap out of them. His rationale is kind of weak, (“Wolves only hunt for food!”*) and leave me kind of thinking that Wulf is an amoral jerk rather than some protector of the wild.

*From what I understand, this is more or less true but a-typical behaviors have been recorded in clusters of incidents. Heck, in 2013 alone at least 6 people were killed by non-rabid wolves.

A lot of the dialogue is excessively grim and contrived (“A mission … of death!”) and sometimes made me kind of cringe awkwardly reading it. I mean, I’ll give it credit- it jumped full on into the vibe it was going for. Despite this, it still feel a bit short like maybe the author’s heart was infatuated with the idea rather than earnestly understanding the premise he was getting into on a intimate level.

Ultimately I am not really impressed with this comic. It delivers what as promised, but only goes through the motion. It feels like the team is trying to mimic making a comic rather than write a story. Getting caught up too much in tropes of the medium (particularly when starting out) leave a comic feeling kind of unpolished. Hey, know what though? They are totally vibing on this comic and if werewolves are your thing- you could do a hell of a lot worse. Give it a read.

Metrics

Art: 5/10 (Decent. A bit sloppy at times but a lot of love.)

Lettering: 4/10 (Few missteps)

Plot: 4/10 (Coherant but exposition heavy)

Novelty: 2/10 (Blade want it’s premise back)

Overall: 3.75/10

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Turtle Guitar

Staff: Ben Powis

Overview:

Art in comic form.

Review:

So we have an odd little comic called “Turtle Guitar” here from Ben Powis. I don’t normally read descriptions until after but the lack of a preview image kind of concerned me so gave it a read. It tells us that this is a 6 page comic so I was a little hesitant starting off. Let’s see if we can shake that hesitation with Turtle Guitar!

So first off the cover struck me as odd. It was done in a very NOT comic style. There is a heavy use of stroke-as-texture with thick lines and a very dark color pallet. It looks like some bizarre patchwork wonderland that is very surreal. I’ll admit- this intrigued at first and it managed to continue that surreal art style effectively all the way through. It put this comic in one of those “comics as art” categories that I don’t get to use all that much.

This comic is all about the art, right down to the lettering. I love how Ben used a change in font color to illustrate the impact of certain words (like “parched” and “dying”). It completes the medium and effectively uses the visual aspects of this medium to its fullest extent. This is a letter of lover to lettering.

The narrative is mythological in nature, drawing a lot of influence from old world folk stories. In this context it doesn’t have to make a lot of sense on the logical level, but it does on the moral/philosophical level. Ben easily navigates around a simple but effective plot with the skill of a master while including the phrase “Turtle Guitar” (in its literal meaning) nonetheless.

If I had a gripe about it was that the plot was in fact very basic. That plays nice with the artistic direction the writer was going for, but it does seem a little nonsensical at times.
Saying that this comic utilized its visual elements to inform the reader would be a drastic understatement. So seamless is the integration of the visual aspects into the narrative elements that you don’t think twice about why a word is in light blue or why that little squibble is visually representing music. It takes risks but every one of them pays off and fits together seamlessly. In 8 pages (not 6) Ben Powis did more for the argument that comics are art than the big publishers have done in the last 5 years. It’s a downright shame that this as been up on DriveThruRPG since 2009 and holds a 3/5. This is a masterpiece you can download for free. Why would you skip it?

Metrics

Art: 9/10 (Industry redefining)

Lettering: 9/10 (Love letter to letters)

Plot: 5/10 (Simple but does its job)

Novelty: 8/10 (Something new.)

Overall: 7.75/10

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Sky Pirates of Valendor Issue #0

Staff: Everett Soares, Brian Brinlee, Michael W. Kellar, Jet Amago, and Cary Kelley

Overview:

It knows what it is and doesn’t apologize, going full tilt into the world it made.

Review:

So we’re setting sail on adventure with issue #0 of Sky Pirates of Valendor by Jolly Rogue Studios. I am surprised that I haven’t come across more steampunky pirate indy comics yet. That might be because, while I enjoy the aesthetic, I am a bit jaded due to the media saturation following the deluge of all things steampunk and pirates that has hit me in the last few years. It’s kind of like zombies or vampires- I’ve just seen too much. That doesn’t mean I didn’t buy tickets for Abney Park and rock the hell out a few months back, it just means I’m a little hands off on the genre at the moment. That won’t stop me from giving an earnest review as I buckle my swashes and check out Sky Pirates of Valendor #0!

The comic itself is grayscale and while the art isn’t professional grade, it’s not sloppy either. There is a lot to look at in terms of detail and one can even overlook the faults. A few times the expressions didn’t match what they were saying but overall it’s not a terrible attempt, particularly for an indy comic. This comic does something a lot of comics do and have the characters just seem to kind of pose randomly (even in small ways) but it adds to the style and doesn’t do much harm (Marvel is terrible with this…). The real issue is when you start looking at the background characters. They are really poorly drawn sometimes and it doesn’t do the love I feel in this comic justice. It’s painfully obvious who the characters are and who is about to be killed off screen. It’s like super Red Shirt syndrome. If they didn’t get an intro at the start, they are totally expendable.

They drop you headlong into a plot via the first few pages. They are a little heavy on the exposition (“this is so-and-so my 1st mate and the only man I can trust”, “this is my wife”, etc). I suppose they had to do something as it is a bit of an introductory comic (being issue #0 and free for free comic day 2013) but it comes off as a little heavy handed. I do like the more stock fantasy races just kind of thrown in there with bear people and They make no apologies for the strong fantasy roots they have and let their hair down in terms of what liberties they take with the setting. For example, we get some very scifi weaponry at times but the main character prances around with a saber for no other reason than he is a pirate. While this works and makes a very magic-tech setting, it does leave the reader wondering a bit. I guess what I am trying to say is, it works and it doesn’t work because they don’t tell us much.

The lettering is fine. I never had any issue with it. I like how they have a bit of their own flare with the delivery of the narration. It has a jagged edge on the bottom like it was torn out of the page of a journal. The lines delivered via it also read like they were from a journal so it works out spectacularly.

Speaking of the dialogue, it does come off a bit frilly at times. The captain seems to talk like a pirate and think in a much more esoteric manner. While sometimes this could be used to effectively make a more complex character (a frequent trick of Grant Morrison’s run on Batman) it just doesn’t jive and we don’t get enough in-character dialogue to make the connection to this character’s more introspective musings.

I can get behind something that knows what it is and what it is doing. To this comic’s credit it is a lot of fun. You get what you sign up for- swashbuckling elves, bears with shotguns, airships, pirate jargon and that is exactly what you get. Cut it, print it, we’re good here!

Metrics

Art: 5/10 (Not pro, not bad)

Lettering: 6/10 (Readable and some creative use)

Plot: 7/10 (It knew what it was doing and did it)

Novelty: 7/10 (Fun little setting)

Overall: 6.25/10

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Phineus 36 Which Lich is Which?

Staff: Barry Linck

Overview:

Not much here.

Review:

So I just downloaded a file named, “Phineus 36 Which Lich is Which?.PDF” and I have NO idea what I am about to get into. The summary on drivethru just says “Rotwang rises from the dead, with hilarious results!” and I have no idea what’s going on. Let’s get to reading then.

Getting into the book we see it was for free comic book day 2012 and is apparently the sequel to a comic done earlier (sort of).

The art starts off very good but a few sloppy spots show up. I don’t know if it is the minimalistic style (think kind of Genndy Tartakovsky does zombie) that causes little errors to stand out so much to me, but they do. However, that’s not to say whoever drew this black and white comic isn’t downright talented, it just feels like he drew it in one go. We get a lot of linework and it looks like the medium was simply inked paper over some sketch work. This comic has its fundamentals down cold though, no questions asked. Great use of perspective, posing, and framing make this stand out pretty solidly. Makes me want to see a comic where Barry puts his heart and soul into it (pun pun pun).

The lettering is decent (almost professional at times) but we get these occasional errors too. Nothing that makes it unable to be read, just like word breaks of short words, odd letter placement, etc.

The story is, as described, a continuation of something I haven’t read (this is why I normally read issue #1s when I do reviews). The dialogue leaves a lot to be desired. It feels like the author was trying a bit too hard to be edgy and/or modern and it just ends up reading like a lot of swears for no reason. The comic is too short to really develop anything beyond, “I was dead. I am alive? I have a necromantic orb in me! I am a litch! I made zombies”, but I can’t really detract anything for it NOT being coherent (just a little pointless I guess). I won’t rag on it too hard though, I did jump in in the middle of a plot (I assume). I’m not really sure where there was any humor. It felt like the exposition as to why a character was back to life. Heck, the cover was funnier than the comic. Maybe I’m missing something?

Overall I didn’t dislike it. There wasn’t a lot to like either (art was solid though). I’ll just toss this one on the “Failed too impressed but not their fault” pile. Hey, it’s free so give it a read!

Metrics

Art: 5/10 (A cut above the rest, few flaws dragged it down)

Lettering: 5/10 (Few missteps, professional overall.)

Plot: 4/10 (Can’t say it wasn’t cohesive?)

Novelty: 4/10 (I forgot it already)

Overall: 4.5/10

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The Misadventures of Electrolyte and The Justice Purveyors

Staff: Patrick J. Reilly and Butch Mapa

Overview:

Go read it. Now. Stop what you are doing. Put down Batman and/or Superman and read this.

Review:

Alright, so there are times when I do this that I get really disheartened. But comics like RATO, C.U.P.I.D.S, and Slave all make it worth it. I go through so many bad ones that when I find a gem like The Misadventures of Electrolyte and The Justice Purveyors I get excited. And excited I am. This was a FANTASTIC comic that everyone deserves to read.

The art is top notch and at times even some DC/Marvel folks could take some pointers. The letting is the only place this comic is weak in and then that’s only at a few rare points (see the bottom of page 46 to see what I am talking about). That’s just a drop of water in the ocean though as this comic’s artistic investiture in the characters is wholehearted.

The real quick run down of this comic is that we are following a team of heroes with laughably bad powers who try to fit into a world where much better heroes exist. It sounds like a tired plot we’ve seen played for laughs a dozen times but these guys really hammer it home. The story has twists and turns galore, the characters are well written, the each feel unique, and the plot is engaging as well as coherent. I got a little Watchmen vibe from this comic, in a good way, and I really liked the protagonist. He almost lampshades the qualities of some other characters but the third act really hammers it home. There is a panel where all these heroes are just taking an elevator ride and “Age of Aquarius” starts playing. I stopped reading, put it on, and LAUGHED how well it fit.

It was totally an unadulterated FUN reading this comic. A lot of times I slosh through junk on my trek through the indy comic reject bin and I am wildly impressed with this book. It had smart dialogue, a lot of great twists, and I didn’t feel like I was painfully slogging through panels I didn’t want to read. Sorry for the short review but just go read it. You’ll get why I don’t want to spoil anything.

Metrics

Art: 9/10 (Marvel eat your heart out)

Lettering: 7/10 (Few missteps, professional overall.)

Plot: 8/10 (Smart dialogue and good characters.)

Novelty: 7/10 (Seems like a basic plot then BAM, twists.)

Overall: 7.75/10

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