The first thought that strikes me in this story is that it is the most “comic book” of all the stories in the anthology. The action, the dialogue, and even the paneling just feel like classic comics. It’s pretty clear that the author of this one takes a lot of influence from that direction. 

Opening to the first page, I was immediately taken in by the art style. It reminds me a lot of some of the comics I read in the mid 2000s and early 2010s. That put a smile on my face right away and continued through the whole story. There is a panel near the end that is easily a contestant for my favorite panel in the entire anthology. I’ll be looking for more from these artists in the future.

The dialogue is probably the area that stands out to me as being the most “comic” style. There are expositions and short exchanges that have to convey a lot of information in a short amount of pages so at times it seems odd to me. Especially in a scene when a character’s full name is used when the main character starts talking to them. It is an established character in-universe, so it needed to be stated for anyone that wasn’t already introduced to them in other books, but it just feels silly to me. This is a pretty common style in many comics that I’ve read in the past, just something that’s always stuck out to me in general.

The new characters themselves were written with a lot of personality. No one in the story felt generic but instead had a distinct personality that is shown through the dialogue and the actions. The short section where we actually see the new characters and they interact with the main character only left me wanting to learn more about them. The powers were unique and strange and the slight glimpse into their motivations and goals was intriguing. When writing this section of the review, I began to write that one specific character of the new team was my favorite. Then, when thinking further, I changed my mind. Then I changed my mind again. I would say this is a strong indicator that the team has hooked my interest.

The story starts out as a detective tale and then transitions to heavy action once the new characters are introduced in full. I thought the flow from one to the other worked exceptionally well and it was surprising how large this story felt while only being 16 pages. 

The detective portion of the story was interesting and had me guessing at the motivation of the culprits the investigators were chasing. Setting up a strange crime scene and walking through it with the detective was a great choice. We see the aftermath of a fight scene where mysterious powers are used and, with the detective, try to piece together what the cause and timeline were. This is a fun reversal of storyline, where we see the effects of character’s powers before actually seeing them in action. It also sets up power levels and stakes in the coming confrontation. 

The final action scene was a blast. I enjoyed how this scene was laid out to really feel a good flow of what was happening. I think this is mainly due to the artist’s choices in character poses and visual angles. One problem I have in comics frequently is that the action and movement is difficult to follow. This comic does not suffer from that. I was easily able to follow the exciting fight. When reading through that scene, as opposed to other comics where I may re-read a scene to get a better understanding of what actually took place, I re-read this section just because of how stylized and, well, cool it was. Additionally, the onomatopoeia choices in this book, in general, are top-tier. I’ll never get tired of seeing words like “BOOSH,” “SHOOM,” and “WOOPISH” written out in exaggerated font. 

This comic really brought me back to older days of comic book style. It has a classic feel to it that I appreciate and it was written and drawn by people who look to have the same level of fondness. Actually, this writer, HeelVsBabyface (it feels odd writing that out. I’m not sure that it’s his real name. Although maybe a surname that I’m not aware of), clearly has a level of affection toward comics that surpasses mine by a wide margin. That is probably why I enjoyed this story as much as I did. Creating something like this requires talent, but also possibly more importantly, passion for the subject. That’s why this project came together so well. I’d recommend this story to old-school comic fans and I am excited to see more from this writer and his characters.

-Patrick Jones