Amigo Comics 2016
Written by Jennifer Van Gessel & El Torres
Illustrated by Nacho Tenorio & Sergio Mora
Coloured by Sonia Moruno
Lettered by Malaka Studio
Assault survivor EMMIE wants to change the world by creating her own superhero persona. Unfortunately, being a hero takes more than a costume. Now that she’s joined forces with the most unlikely PARTNER you could imagine, she can finally lay down her own brand of twisted justice on sexual predators.
I’m totally digging this series I mean what Jennifer and El are doing with the characterisation here is utterly fascinating. Emmie trying to do her own version of recovery from her attack and hooking up with her partner well it’s crazy. This is why people recommend counseling but Emmie being who she is and feeling like she does would rather take that hands on approach and do unto others as was done to her. I’ll admit a weird fascination seeing our bandaged man raping rapists, yes it’s that odd turn on it is inexplicable but it’s there. Still watching what it’s doing to Emmie’s mind is absolutely wonderful.
I love that she’s got her network of informants as well. Those two crack me up everytime we see them. Their dialogue is so random and hysterical that it adds something to the mix. Plus a story this heavy needs to have some levity in it and these two do just that. Plus I mean they are women and well they understand the whole revenge thing and are glad to help.
Nacho, Sergio and Sonia do some amazing work on the interiors here. The use of page layouts with their angles, perspective and the use of backgrounds really bring this to life beautifully. I”m also just fascinated by the bodies of these characters, from the the little guy hanging upside down to the club they leave very little to the imagination and yet can still be provocative. Also that we never see Roberts face even when it’s unbandaged well that just adds something to his persona.
I adore the fact that Emmie’s life seems to be spiraling out of control. No matter how hard she works to keep it together she’s far from okay. This Robert isn’t helping matters and I can’t wait to see him and how he fits into this with her, because I just have this feeling there’s something more sinister to him than we can begin to imagine. Plus her little fling with Keith and how he makes her feel well that’s another complication where both sides can crash horribly.
With only one more issue to go in this arc I feel like we’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s possible. I do hope that this becomes something of a franchise because this is just too good to be a sole four issue arc.
This really is an incredibly well crafted, structured, written and illustrated story that explores the darker side of survivor’s guilt.