
Action Lab Entertainment 2016
Written by Brockton McKinney
Illustrated by Andrew Herman
When the Earth itself is in danger from an approaching asteroid, a professional stuntwoman is our only chance to save humanity! But is Zoe Dare up to the task? With the help of her punk rock, I.T. savvy sister and two A.I. enabled robots, ready-or-not the unlikely team is about to be thrust into an adventure of disastrous proportions!
There’s a reason I love comics and it’s books like this one that demonstrate why. Zoe’s the daughter of an Evil Knievel type of stuntman, a very accomplished stuntwoman in her own right. She and her sister as sassy, smart and not immune to danger but embrace the challenge it presents. What happens when a meteor changes course and heads towards Earth well they fine folks in the government turn to them to help them stave off disaster.
Brockton has emerged as one of those writers you don’t know but certainly should by now. The story itself is wonderfully genius and the dialogue is spectacular. The A.I. Robots have some of the best lines in the book and their comparison to C3PO and R2D2 with better dialogue hasn’t gone unnoticed. They actually remind me more of the robots from MST3K and that alone rocked my world. As do the Punk Rock Danni and her obsession with movies and popular culture while Zoe is more serious and doesn’t pay attention to anything that doesn’t help her improve her skills.
The girls couldn’t be any more opposite in nature and yet the bonds of sisterhood couldn’t be any stronger. Now we see the dad here, mostly in cameo style, which leads me to think that he might not be alive anymore and the reason for that becomes slightly clear when Zoe’s forced to team-up with Race Thunderbuckler as they both possess the skills sets required for this mission.
There’s one thing no one on Earth has accounted for though and that this meteor isn’t a meteor it’s a ship. Aliens are heading towards Earth and it looks like they may have some hostile intent.
Andrew’s interiors are phenomenal. More animated movie that Saturday Morning cartoon style and full of expression, emotion and wonderful detail. His eye for storytelling is fantastic as the flow through pages and panels show. His use of angles and perspective give you the action thrills you need in a story like this. Also his use of backgrounds are great, the whole inside NASA and the computer layouts are stunningly accurate, think movie set. They could benefit from being in more panels but what we get is more than enough to set the mood, tone and feel.
This is an all-ages story and as such it’s has that subtlety for adults to find things kids won’t and the references well they are the icing on the cake. SyFy, Hollywood and everyone else sit up and take notice because this is what a disaster/comedy should look like!