ABSOLUTION #1

Writers: Christos Gage

Artwork: Robert Viacava, Andreas Mossa (colour)

Publisher: Avatar

Greg's Review:

     Christos Gage tells a good story, but, at first, I thought: “Here we go again – another friggin’ superhero.” And the poor perspective artwork on the first page got on my goat. (But that’s my personal hang-up: my problem with being an architect and lecturer in graphic representation!) An the lead-in lines “Where did it start? Yeah… This is as good a place as any” that seemed so trite on the first page soon had their significance clarified by the time we got to page 5.

By page 4 I knew the main character was a superhero with moral integrity. However, by page 6, I was aware that this was going to be a different ride than I had at first surmised, a new “start” for the protagonist, John Dusk, an “enhancile” [a term as yet to be fully defined] working for an unnamed government department. And I was hooked!

When good goes bad, don’t we all love it, especially when the evil baddies get their well-deserved comeuppance? But there’s always a price to be paid by the protagonist.

The art by Roberto Viacava is a mixed bag: annoying perspective inaccuracies and fairly standard while still professional ink linework and figure anatomy, but excellent storytelling skills in individual panels that convey the action clearly. There is good use of distortion to convey emotion: eg: full-panel shot on page 5. Pages 13Ò14 are interesting with the use of full width panels to convey the immediacy of the fight contrasting with page 15 (in three-panel mode as with page 14 but with full borders) as concluder to that story arc.

Likewise the colour, by Andreas Mossa, is fairly standard yet professional, with the use of light and dark colours to contrast the moods of the story – never more so noticeable than between pages 14 and 15, where the story goes from the grim to the mundane.

Bring on Absolution # 2, Avatar!

Story: ****½ (out of 5)

Artwork: ***½ (out of 5)

Concept: ****½ (out of 5)

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