What makes a hero a hero? Is it their actions? Their intentions? Their powers? These are questions that Frank J. Barbiere and Victor Santos are asking in the first issue of “Black Market”, a series set to explore the seedy underbelly of a world full of heroes. Join us as we review the first issue of this new series from BOOM! Studios that looks into those dark corners of the superhero world that no one else dare venture.
Written by Frank J Barbiere
Illustrated by Victor SantosWHY WE LOVE IT: Here at BOOM!, we’ve never shied away from exploring the dark crevices of the superhero genre that other publishers can’t. From Mark Waid’s IRREDEEMABLE to Mike Carey’s SUICIDE RISK, we love finding new ways to push the boundaries of our medium’s favorite genre.
WHY YOU’LL LOVE IT: BLACK MARKET mixes the visceral noir/pulp sensibilities of Frank J. Barbiere’s FIVE GHOSTS and Victor Santos’ FILTHY RICH with a truly modern take on superhero mythos. If you love Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ work on Sleeper like we do, this series is for you.
WHAT’S IT ABOUT: Ray Willis is a broken man, a disgraced medical examiner making ends meet by preparing corpses at a funeral parlor. His scientific genius is being wasted…that is, until his estranged criminal brother Denny shows up on his doorstep, supposedly cleaned-up and proposing a once-in-a-lifetime partnership to cure not just cancer, but all disease. The catch? It exists within the DNA of superheroes.
Frank J. Barbiere is writer with the Tarantino-esque ability to write a story that is a love letter to a certain genre, using influences to prior works in that genre as a starting point to create something wholly original. With “Five Ghosts”, a great comic was spawned from a clear love of pulp mystery and horror comics, the kind axed by the Comics Code Authority once upon a time; and here, with “Black Market”, the beginnings of what might be another great comic has spawned from a clear love of superheroes. Yet this isn’t your average superhero tale. Barbiere has teamed with artist Victor Santos to bring a grounded, sinister take on the superhero genre that shows just what a normal person will do in order to gain that power.
“Black Market” #1 is an issue that slowly, over time, reveals itself to be a horror-tinged thriller of superheroic proportions. “Black Market” follows Ray Willis as his unfulfilling job as a mortician and the pressures of his wife’s illness pile up on him. Suddenly, he is given a proposition by his brother that could not only cure his wife, but propel him onto the world stage. The only catch is what he has to do to get that cure. It is from Barbiere’s writing that the issue starts off feeling like your standard superheroic affair – a superhero saving the tenants of a building from a fire – but turns, over the course of the issue, into a sinister tale of a possible supervillain in the making. This is one of those weird stories where giving a basic gist of the story invariably spoils just how effectively Barbiere and Santos pull the rug out from under the reader in the latter half of the book.
And that is all I am telling you. What Barbiere and Santos have created is a story that slowly unfolds, showing the reader the life of Ray Willis as his troubles pile up on him before giving him an out with a catch in a last page reveal that is one hell of a hook for the next issue. While the issue is rather simple, focused on the setting up of the character and his situation in the story while teasing the challenges he must fact to come, the revelation in the final pages put the entirety of the issue in a new light. I don’t know if I can recommend this issue more than by saying that immediately after closing the last page, I opened it back up to the start as that twist changed the meaning of everything that happened previous. It’s incredibly smart writing and it makes this a strong and intriguing opening for the series from a writing stand point.
Continued belowThough, it’s not just the writing that stands out, as Victor Santos impresses on many levels here. Santos’ artwork is not quite what you’d expect for a superheroic story as it is artwork tinged with the griminess of reality. There are no rippling muscles under spandex here as Santos provides a glimpse at the schlubby reality of… well, reality in his artwork with linework that is loose in detail yet precise in composition. It’s the kind of artwork you would think of coming from a noir crime book and it’s a perfect juxtaposition to Barbiere’s exploration of those dark corners of the superhero world. It allows the world these characters inhabit to feel so utterly real despite the fantastical elements of the supers.
Not only is the artwork great juxtaposition, but the colour work is an excellent juxtaposition to the linework. Just as the linework by Santos evokes the grim reality of the world of the series, the colours by Adam Metcalf speak to an almost nostalgic sense of golden age heroism. There’s a bright palette to the work that is visible in the backgrounds, highlighting the world in a subtle reminiscence of the colour work of golden ages comics, even down to the use of shading dots in some panels. It’s one of the details that enriches the world of the book in just the first issue and makes that last second twist all the more interesting as it really makes the rest of the series seem all the more interesting.
This was a surprising hit of a first issue, incorporating excellent use of knowing its genre inside and out (and hoping its audience does to) with artwork that both compliments and juxtaposes the writing to create a world that feels familiar yet just off ever so slightly. Barbiere and Santos have created a superhero story that’s both unlike any other superhero story and isn’t really a superhero story after, and yet they tell it with such grace that it’s infectious, making the series at only 4 issues long feel like a pull list must have.
Final Verdict: 8.4 – A little slow to start, but that last page kickstarts the book into something entirely unexpected. For those itching for a comic a little different from anything else, this is recommended.
