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CLASSWAR #1
"Love Your Country Then Rip It Down"
Highly Recommended (9/10)
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Com.X Publishing
Writer: Rob Williams
Artist: Trevor Hairsine
Colors: Len O'Grady
Letters/Editor: Eddie Deighton
Price: $2.99 US |
What if a powerful American super-hero suddenly realized that he should be fighting against the status quo, instead of for it? It's not the most original of questions, but Williams and Hairsine are already taking the answers off in original and very interesting directions. Classwar is an interesting mix of the super-hero and conspiracy/revolutionary genres, a world where brightly colored costumes clash with morality in shades of gray. It's a natural for fans of The Authority, and I'd
think that anyone with an interest in political stories or simply intelligent
super-hero fare would enjoy reading it.
Classwar shows influences from the best of recent super-hero comics, including elements of Astro City and The Authority. The heroes have a violent and
overt approach to conflict, and their powers tend to have nasty and brutal
ramifications, but what really makes it interesting is seeing the story through
the eyes of those who aren't super-powered. The American's ally, the girl
sharing a rendezvous with Young American or the mysterious Agent Jefferson all
give a human face to these super-human goings-on.
Though there is no shortage
of displays of power in the book, what impresses me most are the power struggles
going on beneath the surface. The emotions of the various team members hunting
the American down are shown through their actions, or through dialogue that
gives away relationships past and present, while the tension and anger in
American's movements comes through as powerfully as his actual actions. His
sense of betrayal is palpable, both in the captions that let us see his thoughts
and in the grim, focused facial expressions that Hairsine provides.
Hairsine's artwork is very
nice, reminiscent of Brent Anderson or Stuart Immonen, although with a little
less detail, which tends to make the work look more gritty. I could have used a
little more distinction between some of the characters, as it was somewhat
difficult to figure out all the players on first read through without confusing
them with one another, but his depiction of ugly, close-up offensive power use
and brighter, by-gone days are both pretty stunning.
Right now, the betrayals and enemies that American faces are a little vague, and that works for the first issue. As Classwar develops, I hope we'll get a
better sense of exactly what abuses of power drove American to his actions, and
how he hopes to fix such pervasive corruption. But given the strength of writing
here, which is a beautiful depiction of a soldier who has lost his ideals, the
only thing that justified his life of violence, I expect that future issues will
impress me as much as the initial one did.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board. |
