Action Lab Danger Zone 2020
Written by Dillon Gilbertson
Illustrated by Francesco Iaquinta
Coloured by Marco Pagnotta
Lettered by Saida Temofonte
8 years after the events of Issue 1, Maddie just wants to live a normal life. Unfortunately, she has to deal with public ridicule for the monster that follows her and struggles with contempt for her parents’ decision to conceive her into a “feeder family”.
Last issues rush to tell the story Maddie’s father has brought us to this point. This issue is so much stronger than the first one which in all honesty is a good thing and it’s why when a premise is intriguing you give it more than the initial look see. The second issue is going to make it or break it for me and this has made it! This issue felt just about perfect to me in how it moves the story forward, how Maddie asks the right questions and just how frustrated she is at everyone for various reasons. Sure the sins of the father might have been passed down to her and it’s entirely unwanted, then again who would want it, and she has to reconcile that within herself and really deal with the situation at hand. There are so many moments within this book I want to scream at characters, much like we do at the cinema or at the telly, and this kind of behaviour is what sets this apart as something where the connection between the reader and the character has become an unshakable bond.
The way that this is being told is sensational! The story & plot development we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information keep the story moving forward beautifully. I am also a huge fan of the way that as the story moves forward the reader is able to possibly pick up cues about possible reasons why things happen. It is the little things that happen which kind of speak volumes and it makes this that much more enjoyable, at least for me. The character development that we see here is marvellous. How the circumstances and situations that arise are dealt with as well as how the characters interact with their dialogue shows us there is depth to the characters we haven’t seen yet. The pacing is great and as it moves us through the pages revealing the twists and turns along the way we see how everything works together to create the books ebb & flow.
With a story such as this you need a very good and stylised form of art for the interiors. Francesco and Marco make quite the team here and they do some pretty astounding work together. I like how we see the linework here and how it is utilised to bring out the attention to detail. This is what makes the faces and facial expressions able to express such verve. The way we see backgrounds being utilised and how they give the book it’s depth perception, sense of scale and that overall sense of size of the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a strong, talented eye for storytelling. The colour work we see here is great! How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is done extremely well. I love the techniques that we see utilised to lay the colours down as well as that tends to add more dimension to the people and places.
This is different from anything else you’ll see on stands. The writing is wonderful and how we see the layers within the story and knowing that the heat is burning just under the caldera is thrilling. I mean who doesn’t like it when it all explodes in violent outburst? I cannot wait to see what these folks have in store for us next it’s sure to add even further layers of intensity!