Vault Comics 2021
On Sale September 22 2021
Written by Peter Milligan
Illustrated by Sally Cantirino
Coloured by Dhearbla Kelly
Dax and Bisa love each other. But in this new and terrifying world, love is dangerous. Feeling anything is dangerous. Earth has a new and terrible invader—monsters that deprive us of the very feelings that make us human.
What a fascinating first issue this is. Peter is an unpredictable writer, he’s so versatile that the man can write anything he wants and it always turns out to be something amazing and this is no exception. What I really like about this one so far is that we’ve no idea what’s causing things to happen. A science fiction mystery unlike anything we’ve seen before and that no one has any ideas about the cause but we’re all too familiar with the effect that this makes for the kind of reading that gets under your skin and leaves you with the desire to know and see more. This of course is a part of Peter’s repertoire and he’s quite adept at pulling the reader in and getting them invested in the characters and involved in what is happening within the pages.
I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. How we see the story & plot development through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does some magnificent work in bringing their base personalities out. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages introducing us to the story, people involved and the world they live in keeps the reader in complete suspense.
I really appreciate the way we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge, grow and strengthen over the course of the issue. It makes this such a solid read to see so much and have it all feel so naturally told, of course it helps when the layers add such great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is perfectly achieved.
I don’t know what it is about the interiors here but they have that certain je ne sais quoi to them that makes them really stand out in a great way. The linework is fantastic and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail work we see being done throughout the issue is utterly fabulous. That we see backgrounds taking a large role in this story is great in how they enhance and expand the moments and how they work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is marvellous. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The way we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a sensational eye for how colour works.
I’m into this hook, line and sinker. There is something incredibly unique about this story and I so very much want to know, see and learn more about what is going on. There is some amazingly solid writing and some smart characterisation that’s brought to life visually with these superb interiors. What we get overall is another intriguing offering from Vault Comics that showcases they know good storytelling when they see it.