Writer: Mathieu Gabella
Artist: Fernando Dagnino
Colorist: Carlos Morote
Letterer: Vibrant Studios
Thanks to ABLAZE for the review copy!
A new fantasy espionage thriller from ABLAZE written by Mathieu Gabella (Assassin’s Creed) with art by Fernando Dagnino (Superman, Suicide Squad). A whirlwind chase through a Paris subway tunnel leads to the spiritual awakening of a female narcotics lieutenant who’s hot on a trail of a suspected buyer. When she suddenly is awakened to heightened senses and begins to hear people’s thoughts a specialized unit in the French secret services catches wind of the events in the subway and seeks her out for better or worse.
I enjoyed this first issue. It has an interesting premise and characters. It was quickly paced and you are pulled right into the center of the action. What starts out as your traditional police chase/stake out in a Paris subway quickly turns into a psychedelic trip into magic, voodoo, and murder. It’s a unique twist to your traditional crime and procedural fare. The dialogue and thoughts/voices coming at our main protagonist are a little hard to follow at times but it’s easy enough to figure out what is going on given some incredible art and detail by Dagnino that aids in the explanation of what is truly happening. It’s a pretty wild sequence of events as this issue wraps and we learn there is a whole section of the France Secret Service that deals with this sort of thing. It’s made clear we haven’t really begun to see what will eventually be made clear as this issue points toward a further dive into the magic and voodoo we only get a taste of in this first issue.
As I said the art is fantastic and the book is pretty exhilarating and tight as a whole. I loved the way the whole chase played out and the twist ending. I can’t wait to see what Gabella and Dagnino have in store for us over the course of the next few issues. Kudos to Morote as well on the colors. The lighting in the subway is right on and the rest of the panels are very vibrant and rich. It’s a gorgeous book to look at. Definitely worth checking this one out!
My rating – 8/10 Great!
The Agent #1 is now available.
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