Dynamite Entertainment 2019
Written & Lettered by Jonathan Goff
Illustrated by Ricardo Jaime
Coloured by Natalia Marques
The hyper-powered world of Crackdown (Xbox) has made its way to the comic page! In the not-so-distant future, civilized society is more plugged-in and interconnected than ever – but criminal organizations are growing more connected as well, forming unholy alliances, and plotting for an unprecedented campaign against the world. When a series of devastating blackout attacks plunge major metropolitan areas into darkness and chaos, the global population is terrified, traditional law enforcement is overwhelmed – and it’s up to The Agency, an elite international crime-fighting task force, to restore peace and deliver justice, by any means necessary.
I’m torn here (I’m torn, I’m all out of faith, This is how I feel, I’m cold and I am chained…) I don’t this game and as far as I know I have never heard anyone mention it. So personally I had no idea what I was getting myself into and to be honest I am still not sure. I see the potential here and I like what I think I see in that what’s next is going to be coming next.
The world is pre-established but I am thinking they have a baseline personality set that Jonathan gets to run with here and I am hoping that the characterisation we will get moving forward is a lot better than what I am seeing here and we’ll get into that more in-depth right away. I love the gang members that we meet here because they have personality, charm, personality, style, well you get the picture. Our Agency folks seem stiff, robotic as if they are a product rather than people, except for the new kid. So I am actually looking forward to see what the Agents are going to be like without their augmentations and their link to their command centre. Like I said potential, in this case unlimited potential for character development.
I do like the way that this book is structured. There is a great flow the events that we see here and how we get that action mixed in with the storytelling. The voice that they hear in their coms as well those modified narration boxes were able to set us up with a general knowledge of this world and it does beautifully. Jonathan uses some excellent skills and tactics to pull the reader into this world so that we can enjoy it without ever having known it is based upon something else.
So I am completely head over heels, stiletto’s even, for the interior artwork here. This is some outrageously good work in bringing this futuristic technology based Megalopolis to life. Natalia’s colour work and how we see the lights or those augmentations in their suits and definitely opening up with that first two-page spread where it looks like neon blueprint, holy cow! Also Love, Love, Love the difference in how we see the gang members versus the Agents! It really is dynamic and powerful to see the contrast and it also allows us to see what Ricardo is capable of when it comes to regular folks and how he manipulates the varying weights of the linework to create the attention to detail. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show off a superb eye for storytelling. We know how capable they are with backgrounds so I would really like to see more of them being utilised.
I think this is one of the best ways to take a pre-existing entity and yet still have that opportunity to be original and creative at the same time. Video games have worlds that pre-made and some story or background of characters but in comic book form the opportunity to really let loose and envision some serious storytelling is exciting. With what we see happening here and the whole catalyst that will change the lives of the Agents forever is something that as a reader I want to explore. So congratulations Dynamite has done it again with a strong team of creators who we get to see blossom as much as the characters do.