Dynamite Entertainment 2019
Written by Jonathan Goff
Illustrated by Ricardo Jaime
Coloured by Assis Leite
Lettered by Taylor Esposito
Special Thanks to Jamie Zink
FULL-THROTTLE!!! HIGH-OCTANE!!! WIDE-SCREEN ACTION!!! A city has gone dark. Four heroes stand against chaos. And the odds are stacked against them. Without their Skills and down a man, a noble team of Agents fights to bring law and order to a near-future metropolis in the grip of a powerful enemy. As riots spread and violence escalates, the Agents’ training will be put to the test. But help is on the way! And maybe—just maybe—the odds are about to shift in the favour of justice! The adrenaline-fuelled, larger-than-life world of CRACKDOWN comes to life in the penultimate chapter of the hit video game series’ first comic book mini-series.
When I make my weekly list of books that I want to review there are those that I WANT to read and review and this is one of those. When I read the first issue I knew this was not an ordinary book but had all these elements to it that I wanted to explore, that I wanted to see more of and that captured the imagination beautifully. That this is a video game doesn't mean a thing to me as I don't game so that it got me involved solely based on the storytelling, written & visual, means that this really is more than just your average book.
There are a few things about the way that this story is being told that I find utterly sensational and while I saw what was coming with Subcommander Rollins it had to play out. After all it's just a little too convenient to have them here so quickly. While that may have been a tad predictable nothing else about this was and that's what I call balance. Still the way that Jonathan has this structured is extremely well done and a joy to see unfold. The pacing is amazing and how it takes the the story & plot development and the character development and weaves them together, in and around each other all the while moving forward shows some strong skill and talent.
I am a huge fan of the interior artwork here. The linework is stunning and how we see the varying weights manipulated and utilised to create this superb attention to detail is fantastic. The lines that make up the faces and the facial features are exquisite and bring so much extra characterisation to what we see. The utilisation of backgrounds that we see here really do have that impact of enhancing the moments as well as bringing a size and scope to the story, the city and this world. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a stellar eye for storytelling. The colour work here is just as impressive and when we see the red glow of the holographic projection and how it's casts that glow as a light source that is some impressive work. The shading, the hues, the gradation and colour blocking here are so perfectly executed and just finish the work off as if one person did all the work on the interiors.
I adore the fact that this team was caught in the EMP blast that shorted out their suits and have to rely upon their training, skills and gumption as regular folks do. Take that advantage away wasn't done by accident nope that was some skilful planning if what I suspect is true. What better way to ensure that Terranova Corp. can play the hero and take out the Agency's agents at the same time. Proving that they are supposed to be trustworthy. I like that some characters on this team are already putting the pieces together and this why I adore the lack of technology at their disposal. This way we get to see the characters evolve and be who they are at their core.
Dynamite is always so darn impressive with their creative teams and the franchises they obtain.