Image Comics 2017
Written by Chad Bowers
Illustrated by Jim Towe
Coloured by Juan Manuel Rodriguez
Lettered by Rus Wooten
So far what I see Chad doing with this is extremely good. There’s a strong sense of taking the old, see what’s come before, and using that to create something fresh and new. Forget trying to resurrect the original team that’s Rob’s playground so Chad is creating something new based on those characters and I like that time has passed, the team fell out of favour and the young are going to use the name to reinvent themselves and it. This actually has the potential to rock the industry like the original did.
I like seeing how the team is coming together as the new Vogue tracks them down individually on her quest to find Man-Up. Including the dust-up with Bloodwulf at the beginning it just does a very nice job in setting a timeline and showing how the story progressed to get where they are now, dealing with Shaft. Okay so Badrock has a condition and Jeff, Shaft, is out of jail to meet with these kids and assess, see talk them out of it, and the young and old naturally clash. It’s natural, the young feel indestructible and the old feel like they are right and both sides obviously have to meet the other in the middle and it’s that process or journey we’re seeing unfold by Chad through the writing that has me so dang excited for this.
So we opened with this series with the disappearance of Man-Up and then it went from there. So it’s only natural that the first arc should deal with that reality, his abduction, and finding out that the whole thing is so much larger than any of the realise is utterly fantastic! The direction this is heading and how it’s being presented for me is what Image was about when it started and why it’s been such a strong driving force in the industry.
So i’m liking what Jim’s doing here as well. It’s definitely his own style and take on these characters, this universe and the genre. The way he uses page layouts through their angles, perspective and backgrounds is extremely well done. He’s a great eye for storytelling and how to get your eye to dance across the page.
Don’t sleep on this it’s very much now in how the characters feel, act and present themselves. There’s some extremely solid and strong work happening in these pages that will grab your attention and make you see what the future could hold. This is how you take the past and make it relevant again in ways that show respect and admiration but also showcase how it can be done better than it was.