Under the Net with
Jake Estrada
The Honor Brigade
Welcome to the 15th edition of Under the Net.
I will be
rating the elements of the book on a scale of one through five.
One is poor,
two is mediocre, three is fair, four is good, and five is excellent.
Hey, everyone. I hope everyone is doing well. Hopefully everyone is having a wonderful 4th of July and I figured since today is a day of celebration we should celebrate superheroes an American creation at its best!!
Today’s review
is of a small comic that has had a history of being printed and is now being
presented as a web comic series. The book is in full color, and it is worked on
Tom Stillwell and Brad Bowers.
The team is compromised of:
Toy Boy: A former thief turned hero.
Lightning Rod: A guy born to failed heroes and out to redeem
the family name.
S.U.I.T: A half human, half machine and quite pissed off all
the time.
Mystery Girl: Like her name, she is a complete mystery!
Deadeye: A cop who happens to be a ghost trying to solve the
biggest case of his life, his own murder!
Here is the line up
of the series.
I only was able to review 17 pages, so I will do what I can
with that. J
The Art
The art is up to standard for a modern-day comic. The cover
has a huge smiley face; it kind of reminded me of Watchmen. We are introduced
to Toy Boy in the first issue. The comic is full color, and I will say the
comic came off kind of odd to me, and the art was strange but up to standard.
It flowed fine and I could understand what was going on. The lettering captured
my interest more, and I will say that it was done nicely, it had those nice effects,
and it was clear and crisp.
ART: 3 STARS
The writing
The writing, well with the 17 pages I did review, it left
some to be desired. However, I considered that this comic was originally a
print comic. The flow and pattern of the characters flowed better as the series
progressed, and it wasn’t originally designed to be a web comic so it had the
normal padding and stretching of a plot to fill out. That is one of the major
problems with modern comics, and it makes it harder to adapt some comics to
web. I was interested in why Toy Boy was messing with the rent-a-cop. In fact,
I thought it was just outright mean to test his skills out on a poor slob that
was merely doing his job. I would say it was very non-hero like and rather
pointless. After I felt that way, I had to reread the comic book pages about
three times. It kind of confused me. At first, I felt it was someone that
worked with him and his partner and he was just testing it on someone that was
employed for him, and later I saw it was Toy Boy breaking into a place where
one of his potential enemies was located. I only say this because he then left
a message for the Rent-A-Cop to tell Conroy he was by to see him. This kind of
left me scratching my head, but like I said, it is the nature of comics where
most stories are padded out to fill the pages. Of course, I would like to know
who the enemy was and what Toy Boy was about even if that meant he was out to
get his enemy for stealing his flowers, but what I got here was some sort of
message to be delivered. I will have keep an eye out for future pages to see
how the story progresses.
WRITING: 3 STARS
Originality
The themes behind the book reminded me of a Teen Titans
book, but the fact that it took about 17 pages to introduce Toy Boy and no one
else, I can’t gauge the entire book with what I saw. I felt that Toy Boy being
a former criminal now trying to be a hero also had this Thunderbolts vibe, but
with Toy Boy messing around, showing off his skills, and then having a
Rent-A-Cop take him down for a second, did make me laugh. I think having a
hapless hero who is not that superhero-like all the time is quite nice.
ORIGINALITY: 3 STARS
The Pros
The lettering and effects are good. The book has a very
polished, professional look to it.
The Cons
I wish the action was faster and that the overall plot was
revealed to the reader much quicker, because if they are trying to gain more
fans, well, they may not get them. Considering that this was a print comic
before a web comic, one is not afforded reading the entire product how it was
intended to be. I guess I could purchase the actual comic to read it to get the
entire picture, but with what I read, I would wait until I read more before
considering buying the title.
My Final Word
The comic is a fine comic. It has some of the basic
trappings of other comics we all have seen. I would say give the book a try and
see how you feel. It has good qualities to it, and I know I will continue to
check back. I think it shows great promise, and I am considering that it was
designed as a comic to give you the entire punch in one sitting and not at a
page at a time in this piece meal fashion. I suspect it will get better because
it is a long-running comic series. J
The comic updates here:
Enjoy folks!
Jake Estrada
Email me at estradajake@yahoo.com for website suggestions.
Thanks.
Jake Estrada is a published author who holds degrees in
Multimedia Design and Criminal Justice. He is a father to three wonderful
children and married to his beautiful wife, Beth. You can find his comics at http://graphicly.com/estrada-media
and other fine online stores.
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