Aftershock Comics 2021
Written by Cullen Bunn
Illustrated by Mark Torres
Lettered by Dave Sharpe
With the body count rising around them, a group of doomed psychics confronts a telekinetic murderer who is venting his rage against anyone in his path. Their mental gifts are both the key to their survival and the path to their own destruction, as they move ever closer to uncover-ng the awful secrets the Trellux Institute is protecting.
I finally figured out what this reminded me of and that’s James D. Hudnall’s Espers. Though I must say Cullen’s is much darker and more violent it still has shades of that series, just shades mind you and with Mark’s interiors it really made me wistful . i will say that I love the fact that I hadn’t seen the opening coming. Last issue Victor was approaching the house and here we see exactly what he had in mind though he didn’t harm any of the group that was assembled, something about kindred spirits which is my phrase and paraphrasing than anything that was actually said. I do like this because it gives us a chance to see another of them in action with their psychic ability as they try to learn more about the quickly fading doc.
I am an absolutely huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of event unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented perfectly. The character development that we see is bloody perfect as well thanks to the dialogue the character interaction and how they act ad react to the situations and circumstances they encounter. It should also be noted that with the use of their abilities helps in fleshing them out even further. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story we are caught up in this thrilling race against time as the group struggles to learn more about what’s happened to them.
I am really impressed with the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, evolve and emerge as the situations dictate. The layers contain bits of backstory and intense characterisation some of which strengthens the main arc while other swirl around it supplementing it. This brings us some great depth and complexity to the story. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved exceedingly well.
I love the interiors here. There is something about Matt’s style that really fits this story so beautifully and I can’t see anyone else nailing this the way he does. The backgrounds here are utilised judiciously and it’s all about how everything works within the composition of the panels which shows the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the book. This makes the panels feel fuller and utilised to their max and it’s pretty damn impressive to me. The utilisation of the page layout and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a truly gifted eye for storytelling. The colour work is equally as brilliantly rendered. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work are magnificent to see. There is a real mastery of colour happening within these pages and that it feels like watercolour at times and near realistic, computer generated?, at others demonstrates that understanding of how to use colour to its maximum effect.
This is a great modern supernatural horror story. The group is currently living on borrowed time unless they can find the people who made them this way. Along the way it’ll be interesting to see who lives and who dies and if they do indeed learn the truth will it be something they can live with knowing? This will engage your mind with its exceptional writing and characterisation that’s wrapped up in these absolutely mind blowing interiors.