REVIEW: AXCEND #1

Written by Shane Davis, Art by Shane Davis, Michelle Delecki, & Morry Hollowell, Published by Image Comics

I was a little wary at first as the cover had a wiff of nineties about it.Â Lynx Africa probably.

The comic opens with school student Eric, standing up to a bully, going home to his mum and playing a game which pulls a Tron. While in the digital realm he gets his arse handed to him till he leaves the game and various things happen after that, that might spill into spoiler territory.

The strange part is, the in game pages are strong in concept but weak in execution, when Eric first winds up ingame he’s understandably baffled and confused but after a page of info’ dump he just gets on with it and it doesn’t feel adequate enough narratively. When it left the game world though Eric is actually a complicated and sympathetic character and he’s written in a way that never gets whiny or angsty.

The art is a blend of nineties design and energy but with contemporary anatomy and story telling, which means you get all the nostalgia of old crap Image with the delights of new Image.

The end has an interesting twist I didn’t see coming, elevating it above your average superhero comic.

If you like your superheroes and just feel like something fresh and interesting, try this.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]