Aftershock Comics 2017
Created & Written by Marguerite Bennett
Illustrated by Juan Doe
Lettered by Marshall Dillon
A city by the sea rises, ruled by animals who become more human and humans who become more animal. All the while, Adam, an imprisoned veterinarian, works on the technology that would give his captors the strength to change the world...
Adam’s journey is just getting started and we’re seeing this world in a way that really staggers the imagination. Marguerite really did a number on us when she debuted the Animosity series and that what she has in mind to tell needs a second book well heck yeah. This is the kind of world that is becomes more and more realised as it progresses and you find new aspects and characters whose story needs to be told. Adam’s is one of those and from his position and vocation well it really is something to see here.
With a different perspective and giving us another look at how th3e lives of both animals and humans were changed by the great awakening is some stellar stuff. Adam is lonely and feels guilty because of the special treatment he’s getting and at the same time is all too aware he’s essentially a prisoner at the same time. So he’s got this whole complicated guilt thing going on and while he may interact with other humans working for, yeah not with, the animals in this city he’s really not one of them. The level of characterisation we see when he’s trying his damndest to reconsile everything he is with what he wants well it’s spectacular.
Juan’s interiors are very nice done as well. I mean the style he brings to this isn’t typical and yet I still find myself fascinated by how he sees these animals. Me i’d love to see some exceptionally detailed work but what Juan does fuels my imagination more than I anticipated. His use of page layouts through the angles and perspective is handled extremely well. Would I like to see more backgrounds yeah but again we should know that about me by now and it’s not that he ignores them but they feel kind of incomplete.
So it’s not enough for us to see all this stuff going on around Adam as he finds himself not just a veterinarian but also a confidant of sorts as well to Wintermute. Then add in the Bat whose name i’m not even going to attempt to A. remember and B. write down it’s crazy but then he’s a bat and it shouldn’t be something we are familiar with. Plus as if that weren’t enough let’s add another layer to the whole thing and throw in a huge game changing twist. Yeah this is why i’m totally digging Aftershock and how they let the creator’s run wild with what they want to do in their books. It makes for some of the strongest most interesting reading around.