Aftershock Comics 2020
Created & Written by Stephanie Phillips
Illustrated by Meghan Hetrick & Francessca Fantini
Coloured by Lauren Affe
Lettered by Troy Peteri of A Larder World
For a price, a top-secret assassination organisation will travel through time and interfere with watershed moments. Trained as the agency’s top assassin, Maya is sent to kill Virginia Hall, the deadliest spy of WWII. Charged with carrying important plans about the invasion of Normandy to the allied troops, Virginia’s death would have a cataclysmic effect on WWII as we know it.
I love Aftershock they really have established themselves as a place to turn for strong, interesting and outside the box thinking stories in a range of genres. The opening here is fantastic and what it does aside from introduce us to the story and one of it's leads is engage the reader. Stephanie manages to really take her idea and present it in such a way that it immediate makes the reader start to think. This is great because it is near impossible to reconcile what we see and what we know about all the supposed rules. So I got anxious to learn more about this, how it works, why it's possible and all that jazz which of course makes me invested within a few pages. I am truly impressed with what Stephanie is doing here and how far she's come since I read Devil Within.
The way this is being told is really rather quite well done. The story & plot development and how we see the sequence of events unfold and how the reader learns information is presented really well. I really like how we see enough for the reader to get a gist but not fully understand so we need to see more. It has this remarkable way of giving information but not revealing anything and I will wholeheartedly admit that I am loving this. The character development is just as interesting. I mean we see some of their personality, well Virginia more so, so we that there is back story there and the hints will be explored as the story progresses. The pacing is great and the way it takes us through the pages revealing the twists and turns along the way helps to create a really good, strong and interesting ebb & flow.
I love watching someone grow and I really truly believe that Stephanie is growing into her skill and talent. With each new outing and new issue she shows that she's getting the hang of this style of storytelling and it is so much fun to watch. Mark my words she'll be a powerhouse writer in the industry before too long and Aftershock needs to keep her working.
The interiors here are good, solid and strong work. I would like to see backgrounds being utilised here, there are a lot of empty backgrounds and I wish we'd see more because how they can show the enclosed space or add that right ambiance to the moment. Mini rant over. When we see Virginia get to the bar I loved, absolutely love the way we see the faces and body proportions they are spectacularly well done. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a very nice, strong, solid eye for storytelling. I do really like the colour work here as well. The way we see the various hues and tones within the colours utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is beautifully rendered. The khaki's and greens that we see are gorgeous and the stump shows the discomfort really well I am highly, highly impressed.
I like the concept here and it's really rather well thought out, executed and presented. This is going to be a fun story and I look forward to seeing how Stephanie is going to explore some of the more unique aspects of what is happening here.