Dynamite Entertainment 2019
Written by Kieron Gillen
Illustrated by Caspar Wijngaard
Coloured by Mary Safro
Lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
His level of genius is matched only by his heroics, and in humanity’s darkest hour, he’s the hero they need the most—alas, poor humanity. Peter Cannon—the man known as Thunderbolt—is only too happy to leave civilization to face its end.
I am at a loss for some kind of superlative start here worthy of Jack, Karen or any number of folks who can sass right off the bat without missing a beat and that is unusual for me as Mr. Humphries would say. This rocked my world in ways I wasn’t prepared for and the way it ends for me was startling yet intriguing. The personality that we see in Peter here is magnificently done and the characterisation all around from Kieron really puts the spotlight on the man behind the mask, one who has seen the worst the world has to offer and believes that there’s no hope for humanity’s future.
I will say that those assembled here to convince Peter to join the fight to save the world from an alien invasion are a group of characters I am not familiar with. They intrigue me though and they all seem to have familiar aspects about them as well and there is at least one, maybe two, whom I would love to see more of. Still the way that this book is structured and how it starts off brilliantly with this conversation sets the tone for the rest of the series. Kieron is unusual in that he seems to be able to write his stories in a way that is frank, stark and have this eerie realness to them that almost catches you off guard. It is also one of the many reasons why I am so drawn to his work.
Now here we are with a rag tag group of heroes who need Peter’s help to put an end to this mess happening on his doorstep. Interesting isn’t it how this random encounter taking out a city is on Peter’s doorstep? There are no coincidences no matter how hard people might want to tell you otherwise. These five people from different nations, different cultures come to be united by one man to help stop something could effect every man, woman and child on Earth. Hmm draw your own conclusions but for me I agree with Peter on this one as he explains it to Tabu.
Caspar, oy this beautiful man is as talented as he is sexy and that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Still his work at Titan has introduced me the talent this man possesses and I have also followed his work when possible. The creativity and imagination here is off the charts, from creating the aliens to the characters themselves, The Test for example is utterly fantastic and makes me want to see more of him, and the linework to detail the faces is incredible. Plus the fact that backgrounds are utilised as needed and how they manage to expand the moment and bring a size and scope to the story is mind boggling. The utilisation of page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows of magnificent eye for storytelling. The colour work here is utterly marvellous and how we see light sources utilised and the shadows and opportunity for colour gradation is simply divine. The looking at them through glass is so well too the slight colour dampening really works here.
I love Peter Cannon, I always have and it’s nice to see him here at Dynamite where I feel it’s the only place to have done him justice. The writing here is amazing and the interiors are gorgeous and if this book doesn’t leave you gob-smacked than nothing will.