Review: HEARTTHROB Season Three #1

Every so often a reader will encounter or read an issue of a comic book that will compel them to read any and everything related to that series. You will have to know the story and understand the world inhabited by those characters. This is what reading “Heartthrob: Season Three”“ #1 is like. Chris Sebela, Robert Wilson IV, and company have cooked up a comic classic with this series, published by Oni-Lion Forge. Main characters, Cassie and Mercer/Forsythe are a couple of criminal heart transplant donor/recipients whose connection may be more than anatomical.

Heartthrob: Season Three #1 opens with Cassie incarcerated in a facility for the mentally ill. Sebela and Wilson“s visual articulation of the mundane nature of her routine will give readers a glimpse of the madness that institutions sometimes make worse. Wilson“s art (with Nick Filardi“s colors) is distinct and at times cinematic. Wilson“s visual style in Heartthrob is reminiscent of the animation styles of FX“s classic comedy series, ARCHER. Heartthrob isn“t really about its jokes, of which there are a few in issue #1. The series has a great sense of humor, but Cassie“s dilemma at the start of “season three”“ is complex.

Most of the story in this issue is a conversation between Cassie, who received her heart from Mercer who is real, alive and now going by Forsythe. The irony of the recipient of an organ transplant talking with the donor is an intriguing conceit, well executed here. Again, if you haven“t read the backstory and/or the previous issues of this series, this issue will force you to go to either your LCS or comixology to get up to speed.

The imagery and the allusions make the story more than a complex conversation between two existentially linked characters. The landscaped maze that Cassie and Forsythe navigate as they talk gives readers some sense of the labyrinthine nature of Cassie“s predicament. Her criminal behavior may or may not be of her own volition, but the decisions she must make going forward will have to be ”“ if that“s even possible at this point.

About a third of the way through the issue, Cassie passes some of her monotonous institutional time by reading Octavia Butler“s WILD SEED. Yet another one of Octavia Butler“s classics that will soon be adapted, WILD SEED features an immortal character who is essentially a body snatcher. No more spoilers here, but reading Cassie while she is reading Octavia Butler“s WILD SEED, will hopefully inspire every reader of this issue to do the same.

SCORE: 4.5/5