Overall, the script for “Ignited” #2 does a fine job of interweaving backstory and real-time scenes that help move everything forward. The visual adultification of the book’s high school characters, however, creates a persistent and distracting emotional disconnect that proves difficult to overcome. (Warning: may contain minor spoilers.)
Written by Mark Waid and Kwanza OsajyefoCover by Yanick Paquette
and Gabriel Eltaeb
Illustrated by Phil Briones
Colored by Andrew Crossley and Phil Briones
Lettered by A Better World StudiosAs the students try to overcome their fear of another attack, more chaos erupts at Phoenix Academy High when two mysterious vigilantes @Viral and @Wave take a stand against the principal’s new radical policy to protect the school. Caught between the authorities and the super-powered vigilantes, Anouk must decide where she will stand to uncover the truth behind the Ignited!
When it comes to TV and movies, fictional teenagers often don’t look and act like their real world counterparts. For the most part, this aesthetic quirk is baked into the aesthetic. We know the average age of “Riverdale” cast members is about 10 years older than the high school sophomores they portray, but we embrace it and simply move on. If anything, fans want and need teen protagonists to be wiser, more mature, deeper and more complex than a typical random kid. They don’t actually want to watch a bunch of gawky, naïve 15 year olds fumbling their way through a script that requires a level of emotional intelligence and lived experience they don’t yet possess.
Comic books, of course, are different. Characters spring directly from the creators’ imagination. No actors required! Of course, teen protagonists still need to be unique – larger than life and special in some significant way – but at least they can and should look like teenagers. Especially in a new, shared comic book universe allegedly designed to reflect the world around us. Unfortunately, the core characters in “Ignited” books 1 and 2 absolutely do not look and feel like high school students, seriously undercutting one of the creators’ key goals.
In the opening scene, for example, a hard-ass cop with gray hair and a two-day beard interrogates a Latinx woman, threatening to charge her with domestic terrorism. She laughs at him and responds, “Soy menor de edad.” I am a minor. Wait a minute – what? In the close-up panel that follows, she definitely looks more like a cynical, world-weary professional woman in her mid-30s than a high school student. Honestly, it a jarring disconnect that immediately yanks you out of the story. From that point forward it proves increasingly difficult to ever really get back on track. Throughout the rest of the book, the characters often feel distant, aloof, and not particularly grounded in the real world, as is the intention.
To be clear, most of the H1 shared universe visual aesthetic is pretty damn tight so far. On the shelf or in your hands, “Ignited” looks and feels fresh, clean, bold and contemporary. Illustrator Phil Briones’s panel sequences are smooth, generally well timed and nicely structured. His inks are clear and decisive and there’s plenty of solid back to heighten the drama and give everything a subtle cinematic look. Meanwhile, colorist Andrew Crossley creates and works within a rich, dynamic color palette that pops off the page without ever feeling gaudy or over-the-top. In short, there’s a lot here to like and the visual game is quite strong.
In terms of action and plot, unsurprisingly the vast majority of this installment revolves around backstory and characterization. As the second book in the series and very early chapter in the H1 universe mythos, there’s clearly a lot of worldbuilding to consider and precedents to be set. On the whole, writers Mark Waid and Kwanza Osajyefo handle things well. In two separate and very distinct flashback sequences, they efficiently and effectively show us two different characters’ basic origin stories, interweaving several other compact, real-time scenes along the way to keep everything moving forward. It’s certainly no easy task to balance these opposing narrative goals, yet Waid and Osajyefo manage to do it well.
The lettering, conversely, is another place where the book stumbles. Granted, A Larger World Studios have a crap-ton words to contend with, in addition to the various visual styles in which those words must be presented. From dialogue spoken in Spanish (with English translations below) to phone text conversations, flashback narration, interior monologue, offstage dialogue, voiceover sequences and occasional sound effects, it’s an awful lot to keep straight and undeniably adds a layer of visual clutter to Briones’s already busy pages. Same thing with the numerous asterisks that reference the English language translations of Spanish dialogue and others meant to clarify the non-standard pronunciation of certain otherwise innocuous words. Finally, top it all off with the rather conspicuous visual effect of partially scratched-out English language vulgarities (but notably not their Spanish language equivalents) and it almost feels like the creative team is trying to make parts of the script particularly inaccessible. In the end, I’m not convinced we wouldn’t be better off with untranslated Spanish and raw, unedited language right out in the open. To me, that definitely feels much more aligned with the “real world” I see every day.
Ultimately, both the “Ignited” series and the H1 universe are meant to be an authentic, self-contained comic book universe that centers on real stories, real characters and real consequences “relevant to today’s readers.” Obviously, we are still in very early days, but so far, some of the creative team’s choices have made it difficult to fully immerse yourself in the experience.
Final Verdict: 6.6 – There’s definitely a lot to like about “Ignited” #2, but so far this young series has yet to find its footing.
