Vault Comics 2020
Written by Max Bemis
Illustrated by Eryk Donovan
Coloured by Cris Peter
Lettered by Taylor Esposito
Bill may be dead, but he’s got a job to do. Welcome to the Big Wait, where folks who don’t quite make the cut go to work off their debt. Everyone in the Wait’s got a job. Bill is a Heavy, whose job is policing the multiverse, making sure bad eggs get what’s coming to them. He’s on track to earn his Climb and reunite with the woman he loves...until he meets his new partner: the worst dude of all time. Heavy is The Punisher for neurotics; Inception for the impatient; Preacher for…well, it’s a lot like Preacher.
This is another highly anticipated book, which also has sold out and gone to a new printing. There’s a reason for this too, aside from the market being really hot right now, which is Max Bemis. The man has proven, to me anyway, that he is one talented scribe. He has yet to disappoint me and that’s a huge feat considering how many books I read. So that this one exceeds all expectations and brings us this interesting take on what being a Heavy is well I for one will wholeheartedly support it! This is outside the box thinking that fits right in line with how I see Vault and their contributions within the industry.
I am a big fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented beautifully. I’m also a fan of the way the narrative is being done, this allows us to join Billy in the now while getting caught up to speed. This negates the necessity to revisit the past to understand what is happening in the now. This leads me to the character development we see here. That same narrative style of storytelling allows us the opportunity to get to know him better and then to see him interact with his boss and co-workers well it really doesn’t get much better than this at fleshing out the man. The pacing is perfectly done and as it takes us through the pages establishing what this is it is easy to see how everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow.
The interiors here are really rather interesting and well executed. There is a definite use of creativity and imagination that we see and I couldn't be any more thrilled by it, also seeing a penis as much as we do here just made me incredibly happy. It is about time that this happens and it’s nice to see that it fits the character and what we now know of him. I like how we see backgrounds utilised throughout the book, they certainly add that certain je ne sais quoi to the moments and there’s some gorgeous detail work in the most unexpected places. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a solidly talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is nicely rendered as well. The portals have some brilliant use of colour in them and it stands apart from the “normal” scenery. The way we see the various hues and tones within the colours utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a great eye for placement, by that I mean where we see the colours change due to lighting and such.
With the way this is structured and how we see the layers within the story coming about it is easy to see that this story is one that might be personal to Max or it’s just a killer concept he had after watching something on telly. Either way this is one of those story’s that you are going to remember and it will engage you in some great ways that will leave you thinking. So hot damn let’s get jiggy with it folks this is going to change your way of thinking, at least it should.