
Dark Horse Comics 2017
Written & Lettered by Alex De Campi
Illustrated by Chriscross
Coloured by Snakebite Cortez
Marcus King: Modern-day Robin Hood or terrorist? Maybe both? When Marcus comes face to face with an adversary who knows all of his carefully buried truths he’s forced to become the man he has always pretended to be. And punch a small army of dudes and blow up stuff. Lot’s of stuff!
First of all i’m in enchanted by this story already. What Alex manages to do here is what sets her apart from most of her contemporaries. From how this book opens to with Mr. Gault returning from a vacation to the J. Edgar Hoover building where he’s beset by his colleagues wanting answers. From this alone we can ascertain the type of man that Marcus King is and how he feels about his associate Sorava Ali Khan. It’s powerful on so many levels and is more descriptive of Marcus and the men and women Mr. Gault calls coworkers than a you can expect in a six issue run.
Now a good story can be good all on its own but it’s made even better based upon the quality of it’s interior artwork. What Chriscross and Snakebite, really I feel like this is a Rap video, bring to the table is astonishing. The attention to detail, the weight of the linework and the pure descriptive look of every person at the table with Mr. Gault told the story. From there we go to what appears to be the Middle East and Wartime. The way page layouts are used through the utilisation of angles, perspective and how we see backgrounds make the flow of the book marvelous to behold.
The dialogue and characterisation of the people we meet here is phenomenally well done. There’s no mistaking who’s who and what they do or are after. Yet there’s still room for growth or change depending on the person. Traits that once again we don’t normally see in the first issue of a series. I’m super impressed with what Alex is doing here, the pacing and flow of what she is able to bring to the table as well the being able to convey the feelings and even though processes behind some of these characters.
It’s very hard to get excited by new books nowadays so when comes across and that can not only pique the curiosity but capture the mind and imagination in such strong vivid ways it’s one you that need to keep your eye on. It’s also one that you are going to need to be reading because this si the kind of stuff that not only raises the eyebrow but gets noticed during award nominations.