REVIEW: Critical Hit #1 & #2

STORY BY:Â Matt Miner
ART BY:Â Jonathan Brandon Sawyer
COVER BY:Â Jonathan Brandon Sawyer, Various
PUBLISHER:Â Black Mask
Release Date:Â 10/29/2014

From the creative team of Matt Miner, Jonathan Brandon Sawyer and Doug Garbark comes Critical Hit the story of Jeanette and Sarah who are out to stop a group of hunters from hunting when things take a sinister turn and they find themselves becoming the thing they were trying to save, prey.

Even though these character originated in another series the one thing that impressed me most about this comic is over the course of two issues just how much time Miner devotes to exploring Jeanette and Sarah“s characters and really giving us two protagonists we can root for. They are not perfect, they have a lot of issues but, my god these characters are compelling and I really found myself rooting for them both. Whilst the ongoing battle serves as the main plot of these 2 issues, Miner devotes a lot of time to some great character moments and what has lead them up to the point of violently taking down the hunters and everything moves at a really great pace, throughout the character moments and flashbacks Miner slows the pace allowing you to really reflect on the characters and then immediately ups the ante as we are back to the on-going battle

Sawyer and Garback make one hell of an art team; the style of this book is very much the quintessential modern comic look with clean detailed pencils and blocks of colour with great care taken in the shading and highlights. I really love the character designs for Jeanette and Sarah, both are clearly of the “alternate”“ scene yet have their own distinct styles. Jeanette in particular reminds me so much of Babs Tarr“s Batgirl everything just screams of the same design ethic and for the characters everything fits wonderfully. Every character carries emotion so well in Sawyer“s pencils, particularly the hunters and when they show up they just look menacing.

Critical Hit is a really well written and drawn comic, whilst the subject matter may not be for everyone I would urge people to give this book a go. The characters are strong enough that you will fall in love with their misadventures in eco-terrorism and come back next month in the hope that they get out of whatever predicament they“ve gotten themselves into alive.

By Matt Deery

4/5

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Author Profile

Matt Deery

Matt Deery is an avid comic reader from the UK, relatively new to the writing scene but, enjoying being part of the Comic Crusaders team and getting to talk about some the books that I adore. Will read almost anything Marvel, with Spider-Man and Iron Man being my all time favorite comic book characters and has recently found a love for Image and Valiant books and generally anything Sci FI or Espionage related. Check out my twitter @brujah69ad if you want to stop by and talk comics, video games or movies!