
Markosia 2019
By Ezequiel Rubio
The sleepy town of Dellwood is burdened with many secrets. But unlike the town in which they were birthed, secrets never sleep. They fever and fester, they ache and grow heavy, wanting release, pleading to be heard, to be disclosed. Hawk knows this only too well, for he is a teenage boy with more than his fair share of secrets to safeguard. As he starts to use his abilities selflessly, and the FBI, hot on the trail of his past misdemeanours, close in on him, Hawk finds, even for a boy with super powers, keeping a secret is a battle easily lost.
This is one hell of a book folks. I am so glad that I have been going through my list of books that I have which need to be reviewed because finding this issue is definitely the highlight of my night! Part of me feels like this is that middle ground between Superman and Brightburn, where we see a kid with his powers doing what needs doing or just doing what he thinks is right. No matter how you slice it this is a refreshing and honest portrayal of a boy who is caught up in life and is just trying to get by. I am thoroughly entertained, completely engrossed and engaged in ways I wasn't expecting and overall in love with this book that Ezequiel is bringing to life.
The story & plot development that we see through the sequence of events unfolding as well as how the reader learns information is laid down amazingly well. The narration feels as if we're privy to Hawk's thoughts and in a mixture of thinking back and lost in the moment it has this extremely powerful effect on me as a reader. The character development we see here is astounding. From Hawk, Captain and Zoe that's to be expected but to see Hawk's mother and learn more about her and to be frank and honest it almost breaks my heart to see how much he loves her and looks out for her. Then again by the same token or the flip side of that coin as it were Zoe's father the Cop, if Hawk's right well that breaks my heart for a different reason. The pacing is solid and as it takes us on this journey through the pages showing us the twists and turns while also highlighting the ebb & flow of the book is rather impressive.
The interior artwork here is another wow factor. The linework we see is phenomenally well rendered and how we see the varying weights bring out is simply gorgeous. Sigh from the first page through the last the attention to detail that is shown rivals anything I have ever seen done elsewhere. The fur, hair or heck even the rain and lightning, no matter what we see it all has this precision to it so that Ezequiel is able to get the most impact possible by what we see. The composition inside the panels with the way we see backgrounds as they show us this depth perception, scale and bring this sense of size and scope to the book is astounding. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masterful eye for storytelling. Then there's the colour work which we see. How the various hues and tones in any give colour is utilised to create shading, highlights and shadows shows someone who innately understands how colour works. The flesh tones and how fur or hair is showcased are just impressive as all hell.
This is such powerful storytelling in it's purest form and it is without a doubt one of the most unexpected and thrilling delights you will find to read. I keep telling you all that the best stories come from the most unexpected places and Markosia is one of those places that consistently releases such high quality work.