In the aftermath of a family tragedy, Hannah Gregory is about to find her life turned upside down with a revelation that is bound to change the entire world. Written by Eric and Adrianne Palicki with artwork from Ari Syahrazad and Jean-Paul Csuka, “No Angel” #1 is a quiet, slow burn drama with a promise of supernatural horror to come.
Find out below why you should check out “No Angel” #1, but be warned: I do discuss some spoilers down there.
Written by Eric & Adrianne Palicki
Illustrated by Ari Syahrazad
Religious texts from The Bible to the Sumerian tablets speak of strange creatures descending from the heavens and mating with humans, their children the superhuman heroes of myth. None of this ever meant anything to Iraq War veteran Hannah Gregory, until she found herself in the crosshairs of a dangerous cult convinced that she’s a descendant of these dangerous bloodlines… bloodlines they’re determined to eradicate. No Angel is a cosmological and conspiratorial modern western with super powers by way of The Da Vinci Code.
In the past year or so, I’ve reviewed a lot of first issues. The first issue is an interesting conundrum in comics and is, in many ways, a puzzle to be solved with no universal correct answer. Creators toe the line between introducing readers to their worlds and characters through exposition and just straight information giving to the reader while also making for an interesting first chapter that’s an engaging read and hooks the reader to come back for seconds. Sometimes the former informs the latter’s sense of engagement while sometimes it’s offset with action and drama to heighten the emotions of the issue.
“No Issue” #1 is the kind of first issue that exists as a mission statement. It’s the kind of first issue that lays a lot of its cards on the table in order to tell the reader what the story is going to be about, keeping enough cards close to their chest that the final page hook snares the reader into wanting to explore the world more. It’s a slow build of an issue, introducing a main character and the world around her and her experiences before up-ending her entire world with a reveal in the last page. Much of the hook comes wanting to see how she will react the entire fabric of her reality being re-written.
It’s hard to get a read on what that reaction might be, though, because our main character, Hannah, is a bit of an enigma. We’re introduced to her through trauma. That’s pretty much her defining feature. Our first scene with her reveals that she recently lost members of her family, who we’re later told that she’s estranged from after she toured in Iraq. It’s hard to tell just how losing those people or how her time in the military have affected her. With the first issue’s slow pace, there’s a fair amount of dialogue setting up the world and introducing characters, but Hannah is not really given a moment to express anything about herself. She feels estranged from the reader, like we’re seeing these things happen to her.
This might be intentional, but it seems like a strange choice. Adrianne and Eric Palicki have a pretty strong voice here and the construction of the writing in this issue is solid. The dialogue between the characters, which much of the story is built on, feels natural flowing. Even though there is a lot of information being given to the reader, characters talk like human beings who have to explain things to one another instead of walking exposition machines. It helps the flow of information to the reader feel less jarring. We learn a lot about this world and these people in a fairly short amount of time, but it doesn’t feel like we’re being laden with information.
There is one scene that sticks with me, both as an example of this series’ brand of supernatural horror and a strangeness to the pacing. Near the end of the issue, Hannah is attacked by a strange man wearing sunglasses. She’s easily able to defend herself, but when she knocks him down and his sunglasses fly off, spiders crawl out of holes where his eyes should be and over his hands. It’s nightmarish and horrific and a scene that’s incredibly underplayed because in the space of one panel beat, the stranger seems to just vanish and Hannah moves on to the next scene. It seemingly comes and goes with no remark which almost undercuts the horror of it because it seems to not phase Hannah enough to mention that spiders just crawled out of a guy’s face.
Continued belowWhile the writing is sometimes a bit hit or miss, the artwork of “No Angel” #1 is sublime. Absolutely nailing the quiet darkness of the first half of the issue’s family drama feeling as well as the latter half’s supernatural horror, penciller and inker Ari Syahrazad’s artwork is stark and scratchy. Even in scenes set on a sunny day, characters’ faces have harsh lines and sunken shadows that bring a depth to their expressions. Their features are simple and not overly complicated, but they remain recognisable expressive. Complimenting the dark, mature feel of the drama in the writing, they feel like real people and the environment captures the loneliness of a small town in America.
The setting doesn’t come into play much in the story, it could reasonably be any small town in America, but Syahrazad brings in a lot of shadows thanks to the trees that surround the characters and the leaves scattered across the ground. There’s a sense of foreboding to the backgrounds, like the town isn’t safe to be in for Hannah. There’s a page after Hannah attends a funeral that shows, across four panels: a shot of the house, isolated by the trees and the shadows surrounding it; a large panel of Hannah sitting alone by candle-light, once again isolated and made to feel small in the middle of such a large panel; a long panel with Hannah firmly on the left-hand side, illuminated by the candle-light, with the rest of the panel behind her cast in absolute shadow; finally, Hannah turns towards the darkness. It’s a fantastic page with simple, effective storytelling that tells us a lot about the character that she won’t tell us herself.
This is made even more effective by the colour work by Jean-Paul Csuka. This issue’s palette is largely autumnal; warm, rustic reds and oranges and browns. Characters, especially the police officer that accompanies Hannah in the first scene, are cast against the warmness of the backgrounds in blues and purples that give them an almost eerie look that builds a sense of uneasiness from the first page. A flashback twists this palette, focusing mostly on muddy greens and yellows that immediately highlight the timeskip. In one of the best examples of colour storytelling I’ve seen, in that scene of the stranger attacking Hannah the background is cast in muddy greens while the characters are highlighted in harsh reds. From one look at the page, it’s easy to see something is wrong just from the colour palette.
All in all, this was a pretty effective first issue. It has its fair share of trip ups and problems to iron out, but the storytelling fundamentals are incredibly strong thanks to a fantastic art team. Eric and Adrianne Palicki have already found a strong voice for the series with a tone that’s unafraid to take it’s time and build the drama slowly through its characters. It promises supernatural horror, but also lets you know it’s going to take its building towards it. That might be too long a wait for some people, and that’s fine, but this issue shows that these creators know what they’re doing.
Final Verdict: 7.9 – It may take another issue to really iron out the kinks, but I can see a bright future for this series if people stick around.
