And Knowing is Half The Battle!
The Good: This cover's pretty neat. It doesn't stand out much, but it does a good job at giving you a good feel for the style of this book. And the logo is actually pretty awesome.
The artwork's nice as well. It's some bizarre balance of smooth and gritty that suits the tone, and makes everything flow pretty cool.
I'm a big fan of secret agencies using nicknames, and we're already introduced to Attila, Wildman, Kunoichi, The Irishman, Canada, and of course Lady Blackhawk. Not sure which character she was though, but for the rest we get tiny tidbits of explanation for their nicknames which reveals little things about the characters.
Kunoichi really stood out though. Her reckless nature combined with her strong survival instincts and quick thinking make for an extremely effective combo.
We get a few little plot threads sewn in here and they're all interesting and varied. I have no idea which to expect more followup on in the next issue. The scene introducing one of the first villains especially really drew me in.
The Bad: I still don't have much of a feel for how Kunoichi feels. I know a bit more about her, but really we don't get too deeply into any of the characters heads yet. I know who all the major players are and a little bit of what they're like, but I don't feel like I really know any of them.
Also, none of them are too expressive, so Kunoichi's big dramatic face at the end seems a little bit out of place, especially when she switches so abruptly.
Sometimes the art doesn't convey the right feel for force. Kunoichi presses her hands against the wall to kiss her boyfriend type person, and when she moves away there's handprints dented in the wall. The problem is, the art makes it look like she only gently pressed on the wall, and it just seems weird.
In Conclusion: 3.5/5
The concept definitely seems interesting enough, and there's some cool hooks to keep me intrigued, and the artwork is pretty fun, but I have trouble feeling invested in this book because it doesn't develop its characters enough yet. Hopefully this will change as the series progresses, but based on the first issue alone, there's nothing that really makes this one stand out. It's kind of generic feeling, but it's definitely not bad, it just doesn't have enough meat to it yet.
