Right from the cover art by Dave Acosta and colored by Walter Pereyra, you know this is gonna be a really good comic. It is set in a sci-fi world where creatures known as “Terrors” can turn into mankind’s greatest fears and bring havoc to society. They are kept at bay by terror fighters, groups of specialized soldiers that earn their living killing and burning up Terrors in order to keep society safe. This is a very interesting premise; it becomes even more interesting when the Captain of the team is Muslim. Not unlike the writer of the story, Captain Muhammad is heard pleading to Allah to help him while the terrors mess up his brain. I think this is awesome, I love it when characters are from different cultures and different parts of the world and we’re not just reading American-only comics. It’s wonderful to see new characters with a whole new perspective. The American-Muslim perspective that Saladin Ahmed brings to the world of comics is interesting, unique, and highly exciting. However do not get me wrong this is not a religious comic by any means of the imagination, it just has a couple of religious undertones, though this is 100% an action sci-fi comic that is worth a read!
The art is awesome, created by a masterful match-up of artists Dave Acosta, Jay Leisten, Walter Pereyra, and Shawn Lee, this comic is great on all fronts. From the dynamic poses, and unique character designs to the beautiful coloring and the magnificent lettering, every bit of this comic is a thrill ride. This issue may not be the most action-heavy of the series, there are some pages that simply take your breath away. One of the very first few pages features a full illustration of the previous team of terror fighters succumbing to their doom, and damn is it gory. I t’s a gnarly piece of illustration and the bright cyberpunk color schemes bringing the page to life; the terror fighters are very much dead. The mix of reds, blues, pinks, and purples does a fantastic world of turning your stomach; it is a nasty piece of art with lots of guts, skeletons, and dismembered bodies. It instantly sets the tonal ramifications of what would happen if at any point our heroes were to fail in their suicide mission to rescue Captain Muhammad. Terrors are terrorising, do not doubt that for a single moment.
As far as character designs go, I think these are some of the coolest designs I’ve seen for humans in a sci-fi world. They are very interesting, especially the design of Doctora Z with her awesome green head of hair. Something about them gives me Speed Racer vibes but with really cool space suits. The terrors themselves are also very cool to look at. They are grounded in reality as they are supposed to be physical manifestations of the things humans fear the most, so we get to see a really gnarly Pterosaur, a zombie terror and we even get treated to a beautiful green and pink wormy-looking face of Captain Muhammad in terror form. It’s really awesome honestly. I think the color scheme really works wonders here. Most of the background is painted with the usual cyberpunk palette of blues and purples, but the foreground elements are heavy on bright pinks, and rich blacks and we sometimes get these very vibrant oranges and yellows that do a fantastic job at containing the cyberpunk palette.
The lettering is quite nice too. It looks to have been made in the same style as the rest of the comic and doesn’t feel like a vector sticker on top of the art. The sound FX’s are OK although sometimes a little too simple for my taste, I do wish they had been a little more creative with them. We get a couple of variations on the word balloons, which is always great and it is done in very strategic moments like with a pained scream and a sentence said on the verge of exhaustion. There are some really good uses of creative sound FX design in the pages that feature the terrors but when we are in scenes with just the humans they get a little more standard run-of-the-mill FX’s, which could actually have been an intentional choice meant to give an out of this world feel to the terrors.
This is a good comic, with good art, a fresh and interesting story with a unique cultural perspective; all in all a comic you should definitely pick up.
Writing: 5 Stars
Art: 5 Stars
Colors: 5 Stars
Overall: 5 Stars
Written by: Saladin Ahmed
Pencils by: Dave Acosta
Inking by: Jay Leisten
Coloring by: Walter Pereyra
Lettering by: Shawn Lee
Cover art by: Dave Acosta & Walter Perreyra
Published by Image Comics
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