Advance Review: Hexagon #1

With all the well deserved hype regarding Brandon Routh’s return to Superman in CW’s Crisis on Infintie Earth’s, it’s hard to remember that Superman ReturnsÂ director, and fan of the Richard Donner movies, Bryan Singer was heavily criticised for following the template of the original movie a tad too faithfully.Â What has this got to do with this book?

In this first issue of Hexagon, we are introduced to Don, his father and his gang of friends.Â His friends are all addicted to the arcade and one game in particular, Crucible. It seems that this game is the game to beat.Â Always watching from the window, Don sees Charlie come the closest in defeating the Spider Queen and her mass ships.Â Don is on a curfew of sorts or a ban in other words, imposed by his father who is acting in the belief of “doing what’s best” for Don.Â Still things change when Don’s father goes away on business and Don finally drops his first quarter and to paraphrase Ben Kenobi Don “has taken his first steps into a larger universe.”

The book is written by Impact Theory co-founder Tom Bilyeu, Dutch DJ Don Diablo and sci-fi comic book writer Michael Moreci.Â Between the three, they manage to mine an interesting conversation of who would win, Transformers or Gobots, (Transformers of course), a smattering of Star Wars quotes all wrapped up in the plot from the movie The Last Starfighter.Â Now, don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie back in the day, but I don’t think I want to revisit it 35 years after the event.Â The trio look to create a world where, in Don’s life, there is noÂ real bad guy.Â Even the overbearing dad is just being a dad, at the end of the day.Â In place of a big bad, we get a set of circumstances to question, which take shape in the form of Don’s friends.

The art of the book is provided by Jheremy Raapack, who has spent time on a slew of DC books, most noticeably Injustice: Gods Among Us Ground Zero.Â Here his art takes a manga style, possibly to entice youngerÂ readers, to whom I assume this book is aimed at.Â The panels convey a high level of energy that you can’t help but enjoy.Â Character designs are well realised, with consistent frames used throughout,Â Looking at the line work and how the inks, and colors interact, it appears that all the work is digital, which adds a certain feel and vibe to proceedings.Â Colorists Abraham Lee, David Kim and Nuo Xu with Marc Monroy all work to create recognisable aspects in the various environments, including the arcade, model shop, family life and of course the aforementioned Crucible.Â Finally, letters are provided by A Larger World Studios, Farhad Heydarian with Abraham Lee pulling double duty.Â it has to be said, i don;t see the need to complete nearly every piece of the book in a crazy triplicate committee.

For a book that seems steeped in aspects from previous movies, mainly The Last Starfighter, I am mot sure why so many people needed to be involved.Â You can’t deny the energy of the book, and if it is aimed at a younger audience, then I am sure that the book will find fans.

Writing – 3 Stars
Art – 3 Stars
Colors – 3.5 Stars

Overall Stars – 3 Stars

Written by; Tom Bilyeu, Don Diablo and Michael Moreci
Art by; Jheremy Raapack
Colors by; Abraham Lee, David Kim, Xuo XU and Marc Monroy
Letters by; A Larger World Studios, Farhad Heydarian and Abraham Lee
Published by; Impact Theory

Author Profile

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes

I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow

Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network