Another new title from Image Comics drops tomorrow, and it comes from a trio of huge talents in Jim McCann, Rodin Esquejo and Sonia Oback. If you’re still on the fence about whether or not you should pick this book up, I have a completely spoiler-free (this is a book you want to know little about going in) look at the first issue that shares my thoughts.
Spoiler alert: it’s good, and it is just $2.99 for nearly 48 pages of story. Come on now.
Written by Jim McCann
Art by Rodin Esquejo and Sonia ObackAfter Elle Peterssen is mysteriously attacked on a Manhattan subway platform, she is left in a coma, the only clues to her attacker trapped inside her mind. No one knows the identity of the person behind this brutal beating or where they will strike next. In this ALL-NEW ONGOING series, everyone is suspect, and no one is innocent. USAToday calls it an “anxiously anticipated modern thriller…Whodunit? McCann’s done it again.”
Eisner-winning writer JIM McCANN joins RODIN ESQUEJO (MORNING GLORIES) and SONIA OBACK (S.H.I.E.L.D., The Defenders) unite for a psychological thriller that will leave you guessing at every turn!
Stories that are heavy on big mysteries can be cruel for readers. After all, isn’t a major part of a person’s enjoyment of any given experience the pay off? If the mysteries are never answered, then you’re left with an elaborate empty promise, and that’s something most fans of serialized fiction cannot abide (ask any number of highly passionate Lost fans).
When you finish this first issue though and read through writer Jim McCann’s back-matter, as he talks about the story you just read, it becomes quickly apparent: this is a story that knows what it is and where it is going, and what it is happens to be a very strong first issue from a great creative team and, hopefully, where it is going is something even better.
Let’s start with the art, if only because it’s my most anticipated part of this whole deal. Rodin Esquejo is a guy who has become renowned for his covers, and with good reason. The dude has a real gift to tell a story in a singular image, most notably on Image/Shadowline’s very own “Morning Glories.” However, I had never experienced his art in a sequential fashion so the question was this: could his art translate to a full story well?
If this issue is any indication, the answer is a resounding yes, as everything in this story is amplified and made real with Esquejo’s stellar and expressive art. Granted, it helps that he has a perfect partner in Sonia Oback, who takes his art and takes his line work and gives it weight and, in certain sections, a real ethereal quality. See: below.
When working together, Esquejo and Oback’s skill set mesh together to create a book that feels real but also supernatural, personal but about so much more. It’s quite the first issue, visually.
Not to be overshadowed, McCann delivers a lengthy introductory issue that never loses its driving pace and sense of history. In regards to the latter aspect, I mean that the world he creates feels lived in, as if we’re not just getting a story, but a cut into this actual world. When two characters meet, whether its obvious leads or even just two doctors who initially feel ancillary, you know that there is so much more behind the words that they share.
While this first issue for many is likely going to be about setting up the mystery and about the twist, McCann’s character work is the straw that stirs “Mind the Gap’s” drink. You can tell that he knows a lot about everyone involved, and that slowly but surely their secrets will be revealed en route to the revelation of the answer to the central mystery of this story.
So the art and writing is both of a high caliber, but what else can it offer? I want to emphasize again: 48 pages…$2.99. At the very least, it’s worth a buy just for the fact it’s like getting two DC books for the price of one. I see people buy eight Blu Ray players on Black Friday just because they are slightly cheaper. Comic fans, you can’t buy one comic at the lowest price with twice the story? Come on, you have to do it.
Continued belowAs far as first issues go, this issue does a lot to set up the characters, their world and the central mystery. In true thriller fashion, it even throws some wrenches in the gears of the story. All of it is well executed by a trio of top notch creators, and it’s all at an incomparable price.
So again I ask you, comic fans. Why wouldn’t you check out “Mind the Gap?”
Final Verdict: 8.5 – Buy
