REVIEW: MAKESHIFT #1 Crafts Survival Into Something Personal

WEPA! MAKESHIFT #1 comes out swinging with a setup that will feel instantly familiar to anybody who has ever punched a tree in Minecraft, but Georgia Agbodjan does not stop at the reference point. Kit wakes up in the Overworld alone, confused, and forced to figure out the rules fast. Crafting, shelter, mobs, hunger, and survival are all here, but the issue works because the book is far more interested in Kit than it is in showing off game mechanics.

Agbodjan builds Kit through action instead of drowning the opening in exposition. We watch her experiment, fail, improvise, fight, and learn. Those small survival victories give the character personality before the larger mystery even arrives. Kit is capable, but she never feels invincible. She gets rattled, annoyed, exhausted, and occasionally embarrassed, which makes her easy to root for while keeping the danger believable.

Dani Mays brings a loose, expressive energy to the artwork that fits the story really well. Kit’s facial acting does a lot of heavy lifting, especially in the quieter beats where a reaction sells the joke or the tension better than another balloon of dialogue could. The Minecraft-inspired environments are recognizable without swallowing the characters, and the action stays readable even when zombies, skeletons, creepers, arrows, explosions, and panic all start sharing the same page.

The sequencing is slick as hell and one of the book’s strongest weapons. Smaller reaction panels keep you locked into the characters, then the layouts stretch out when the action needs more room to hit, so nothing feels cramped or rushed. There’s a nighttime survival sequence that plays beautifully with darkness, sound, and anticipation before everything suddenly pops off, while a later underwater beat slows the pulse and lets the issue breathe for a minute. That push and pull gives the comic real rhythm. It never gets trapped in that predictable craft something, fight something, rinse and repeat cycle. The pages know when to tighten the screws, when to explode, and when to chill for a second before the next problem comes knocking.

The color palette deserves credit too. Daylight scenes lean bright and adventurous, the night pages cool down without turning muddy, and the oranges from torches, fire, and explosions hit hard against the darker environments. The sound effects are integrated into the action rather than slapped on top of it, giving impacts, creature noises, crafting moments, and explosions extra punch. The lettering stays clear through the busier pages, which matters in a book moving this quickly.

The first half does spend a fair amount of time establishing the survival rules, and readers already fluent in Minecraft will probably understand some of those beats before Kit does. The book avoids turning into a tutorial, but the larger story really kicks into gear once Kit encounters another person. From there, the comic suddenly has bigger questions to play with. Who are the other people in this world? Why did they wake up with missing memories? What exactly are “Spawns”? How do guilds function, and are they protection, politics, or both?

MAKESHIFT really starts cooking once it stops leaning on the Minecraft comparison and begins carving out its own identity. Yeah, that block-built influence makes the world instantly readable, but Agbodjan uses it as the doorway into something bigger, digging into identity, community, and what survival looks like when the rules around you keep changing. By the final stretch, the story drops just enough new information to widen the mystery without killing it with explanations, and Kit’s closing decision feels earned. It gives the character purpose, gives the world more room to breathe, and leaves you wanting to see just how deep this rabbit hole goes.

As a debut issue, this does the job. It introduces a likable lead, establishes the rules, delivers clean action, and ends with a reason to want issue two. MAKESHIFT #1 wears its inspiration proudly, but the character work and mystery keep it from feeling like a novelty. NerdLit Studios has a solid foundation here, and now the fun part is seeing how far beyond the familiar blocks this world is willing to go.

Crusaders Score:
4/5

Story: Georgia Agbodjan
Art: Dani Mays
Publisher: NerdLit Studios

Support NerdLit Studios via Ko-fi and follow Georgia Agbodjan on Instagram.