There’s a lot to cover on Wednesdays. We should know, as collectively, we read an insane amount of comics. Even with a large review staff, it’s hard to get to everything. With that in mind, we’re back with Wrapping Wednesday, where we look at some of the books we missed in what was another great week of comics.
Let’s get this party started.
Harrower #3
Written by Justin Jordin
Illustrated by Brahm Revel
Colored by Brahm Revel
Lettered by Pat Brosseau
Reviewed by Ryan Fitzmartin
Bloody flows freely across the pages of Justin Jordin and Brahm Revel’s violent horror comic. Stabbings, slashing, and shotgunnings make up this gnarly comic. There’s not much plot, and most of the comic is chase action, with a few story revelations dashed in. Small moments are used to build character, keeping the audience interested. It’s a minimalist style, but it works for an action driven comic like this. There’s just enough plotting, just enough dialogue to keep everything going.
The art is so strong and so vivid that it really could carry the comic on its own. Brahm Revel’s style is scratchy and dirty, it feels almost deliberately haphazard to reflect the chaos of the situation. Revel provides detail where necessary, focusing on strong action lines, facial expressions, or piles of gore. His characters are expressive, and his compositions guide the eye really well to what’s important. The art in “Harrower” #3 wouldn’t be considered conventionally gorgeous or painterly, but it conveys meaning and action with expert precision.
Overall, “Harrower” #3 is a gnarly and engaging work of horror fiction. It’s brutal and highly kinetic, the breakneck pace of the story matched by truly frenetic art.
Final Verdict: 7.8 – A vicious and aggressive horror comic.
Nightwing #103
Written by Tom Taylor
Illustrated by Travis Moore and Vasco Georgiev
Colored by Adriano Lucas
Lettered by Wes Abbott
Reviewed by Gregory Ellner
Despite covering multiple areas, Tom Taylor’s writing on “Nightwing” #103 is very focused on characterization of a multitude of personalities, both conflicting against one another and complementing each other depending on the situation. Taylor manages a surprising amount of relatability amongst the demonic forces of Hell, including a hilarious sequence with Cyborg and a computer, but still maintains the threat of the infernal entities nonetheless. Even when at a disadvantage, beings like Neron remain a threat to the mortal world, even if in a manner akin to a cornered rattlesnake.
Travis Moore and Vasco Georgiev each do a marvelous job with their individual settings in the art department. Travis Moore brings in the visceral, dour setting of Hell and the team that goes there very well, the illustrations enhancing the implicit despair of many residents, even if they are not seen. Meanwhile, Vasco Georgiev’s drawings of brighter, daylight-focused experiences on Themyscira have a joyous, hopeful feeling to them, bolstered by the heroines helping to train a young girl in her powers. When the tone changes in the latter, it is shocking but well handled with particular perspective shots focusing in on what is wrong.
The illustrations are well done, but even with two distinct artists, the tones would perhaps be difficult to balance without the colors provided by Adriano Lucas. Dark color palettes around Nightwing and his companions make the setting of Hell and surrounding demons all the more oppressive, while the brighter coloration outside in Themyscira is alone possibly enough to elicit a smile before the horror comes. Once villains arrive to the latter, heavier shadows make the setting closer to the feeling of Hell, seeming to lose its grip on the prior feelings of hope.
Final Verdict: 7.5– Interlocking stories work well together despite different tones as this story reaches toward its likely climax!
No/One #2
Written by Kyle Higgins & Brian Buccellato
Illustrated by Geraldo Borges
Colored by Mark Englert
Lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Reviewed by Alexander Manzo
“No/One” is a great and unique entry into Kyle Higgins’ Massive-Verse, where typically, the reader uses the super-powered individual as the central perspective of the story. However, this story follows the police officers and journalists as they try to stop this vigilante from taking justice into their own hands. Higgins threw a lot of characters in the opening issue, so it was good for the follow-up to hone in on the essential perspectives. Ben Kern gets back on the case after surviving being shot by a copycat killer, one of his sons being the original killer, and now being pestered by his coworkers, politicians, and even reporters on if he should even be a part of the investigation. As everyone challenges him, a man who has done nothing but try to do the right thing, it’s a fitting decision at the end when he retires from the force, but clear to the reader that he’ll investigate on his own. Kern has nothing else; with one son incarcerated and his other son and wife dead, there’s nothing else for him to lose.
Continued belowThe two other perspectives the reader is given are from the journalists Alejandro and Julia, who both have the same goal of getting to the bottom of what is happening but with different methods. Julia is more reluctant to push too far with her contacts on the police force as she sees the delicacy of what is happening but is being pushed by her editor for the sake of a newly launched podcast. In contrast, Alejandro is the “yes-man” type of mentality in how young he is in his career and hopes to get a better opportunity, which is how he gets in the crosshairs of Kern. It’s clear to the readers that this is the beginning of the character arcs crossing over.
The artwork by Geraldo Borges and the colors by Mark Englert give this strong Zodiac vibe where there is this sense of darkness, no matter what time of day the scene takes place, looming around the corner. Each character has this look on their face that they are taking every bit of information provided by the environment or conversation and stashing it away in their back pocket. No one, no pun intended, is showing all of their cards, and everyone could be a suspect. Borges and Englert also have a Dark Knight scene when No/One is chased on the rooftops by helicopters and uses his agility and stealth to evade everyone despite being surrounded.
Final Verdict: 8.5 – There’s no information dump like the first issue; the reader is informed on who exactly they need to pay attention to and starts seeing their investigations begin to cross.
TerrorWar #1
Written by Saladin Ahmed
Illustrated by Dave Acosta
Inked by Jay Leisten
Colored by Walter Pereyra
Lettered by Shawn Lee
Reviewed by Quinn Tassin
Sometimes the path to success looks like keeping things simple and “TerrorWar” #1 certainly does that. In fact, the opening pages feel so generic dystopian future that it would be easy to start writing off this issue. But then a giant, cute frog wearing overalls incinerates a man by touching him and it’s hard not to be riveted. When that giant frog (a manifestation of its target’s greatest fear) is blown up by “brain bullets,” “TerrorWar” becomes one of the best new comics of the week. This debut strikes a delicate balance perfectly by taking itself seriously while being incredibly fun.
This is a comic with a real point of view, one of a future where capitalism has pushed people down even farther (robot dogs called Credit Hounds eat a man to death) and marginalized people work hard to support one another. The world building here is effective; there’s a lot of telling but it’s accompanied by plenty of showing, making it much more interesting than your average info-dumps. Moreover, this series is clearly interesting in telling the story of a diverse set of characters. People of various races and gender identities populate these pages and it never feels like a self-congratulatory effort. Plus, the Terrors make for really interesting monsters to fight. The fact that they take on the form of people’s fears is innately interesting and becomes even more intriguing when you consider the ample opportunity the premise provides for exploring characters’ psyches.
The biggest weakness of this issue would have to be the characterization. Muhammad is a fairly flat protagonist whose main thing seems to be that he’s a good dude. Then there’s Mae, the no-nonsense one, Dmitry, the nervous smart guy, Rosie, the Michelle Rodriguez-type, and Dr. Paz, who’s big but very thoughtful. These are definitely easy characters to latch onto (again, simplicity largely works in this comic’s favor) but they don’t seem particularly complex. In an issue that has a lot of world-building ground to cover, it tracks that there’d be a tradeoff of some sort but as of now the cast really feels pulled from a comic book ensemble generator.
The artwork is what makes “TerrorWar” #1 as fun an issue as it is. With a throwback ’80s/‘90s aesthetic, the team does strong work at using a lot of familiar visuals without anything feeling stale. They do an excellent job bringing this world to life. It’s clear that this is the future but the narrow, crowded streets, and dilapidated buildings communicate what kind of place we’re spending our time in. Characters and settings are designed with a real care for detail like robotic hands on Mx. Etienne and shop signs in a wide variety of languages. The character design for our protagonists is as obvious and simple as there characterization but luckily when it comes to cartoonish illustrations, that’s actually a major upside. Without a single character saying a word, you understand their essence. The action is strong, with clear blocking and a strong sense of momentum plus some gnarly visuals when the incredibly well-rendered Terrors are being shot down.
In sum, this is a cool comic! It’s simple in ways that make it easy to understand and have fun with and the kinks seems easy enough to iron out. Terrors make for not only great villains but a great mystery and this is a world that seems ripe for exploration.
Final Verdict: 7.9- Simple and fun with a strong social message, “TerrorWar” is an exciting new addition to comic shelves
