Blue Juice Comics 2015
Created & Written by R.F.I. Porto
Illustrated by Gavin P. Smith
Coloured by Tim Yates
After jumping forward through a series of nightmarish futures, our heroes arrive at a small country town in what seems like the pre-industrial past. While searching for an explanation, Spatz encounters an old-fashioned constable who somehow renders their technology useless and demands that they surrender their accelerator.
Wow this issue showcases something we’ve not seen here before and yet feels like a most natural progression of the series. It both throws out what we’ve seen before and yet establishes previous events firmly at the forefront. Spatz is the clear star of the series at this point as we’ve seen him go from unwilling passenger to finding out his much older self plays a huge role in the Accelerator’s actions. Yet none of that can prepare you for what goes on this issue and it’s actually some of the best storytelling I’ve experienced in this series to date.
So last issue they found this retro town and this issue we pick up with the gang now finding themselves in new roles. Spatz is now the son of Louis and Alexa, the army guy now with a wooden leg instead of a bionic one and his scientist wife. His gramps is the guy is basically a cyborg and then there’s our gladiator who is a foreigner who saved dad in the war and came back to care of gramps. Yeah none of that makes any sense as I write it down but if you read the story you’ll understand it completely.
So there seems to be something sinister about this town but they have no idea what that is because they seem to be living out a life that has been scripted for them. Sure Spatz seems to innately know something is wrong and when he meets Bob in her new role and her memories are awakened thanks to his proximity/touch well she is dealt with. How you’ll have to read, but suffice it to say this is the beginning of how we learn how important to all this Spatz really is.
Porto has really surprised me here. This issue really has so much more going on than usual and his pacing, narration and characterization has been incredible. This issue took me by such surprise in that the direction it took was so different than what I’ve become accustomed to and that in itself is magnificent. Just the way he was able to reveal what he did here leaving us with more questions than answers but still reminding us of what kind of disaster the whole Accelerator program caused well it’s pretty epic. Plus I really enjoyed seeing who was able to retain a bigger part of themselves throughout all this that was nicely demonstrated.
Gavin does he usual wonderful work on the interiors as we see such an old fashioned dress on the characters making me long for a time when people actually dressed to leave the house, though the women well their attire is too old fashioned but still impressive. While I do still wish Spatz would get a haircut the depiction Gavin brings of each character is really nice. Even more impressive is when we see Bob and the flashback to what’s happened as well as the bigger reveal towards the end shows such a growth in his work and should lead him to work on larger projects.
Blue Juice has found itself one of the books to cornerstone it’s company on here, that signature series that should be used as an example of the offerings they give. Strong, ever growing with a great premise and fantastic interiors this series is a must read!