Imposter #1
Writer – James Patrick
Art – Martin Szymanski
Colors – Osmarco Valladao
Letters – ET Dollman
Cover – Victor Santos
Publisher: 21 Pulp
Available: February 10, 2016
Order now from your Local Comic Store! Hero Hourly was sold out through Diamond, and you will need to order ahead to get your copy.
You’re a police detective. You know of a few superheroes – Doctor Oculous, Captain Apex, Jungle Jack, and some others – but there’s one who has helped you out over and over again.
The scourge of the city’s criminals is The Centipede. He’s backing you up on a case and gets injured, but insists on going to his lair and not the hospital. What do you do? If you’re Detective Hale Barker, you take him where he asks, and then the cat is out of the bag.
In this first issue of a four-part mini, writer James Patrick establishes a world and sets up the major players, some visually and some implied. The idea of this is really intriguing – who are all
these heroes? What will Hale do with the information? I know the secret has already been spoiled if you read the solicit, but I didn’t read the synopsis ahead of time. Getting to the end was a cool discovery. He’s created so many possible directions for this title that I’m really excited to see where he goes with it.
Martin Szymanski does a great job of visualizing the different parts of the story and bringing it all together. When I got to the big reveal, I realized that he’d shown all along what I was just figuring out. This is an action-heavy book, and it’s really well-executed. He inks himself, but this is a strength rather than a detriment. His lines are varied in a way that really enhances the work. Colorist Valladao helps us to keep all the parts of the story straight by using a different tone for each location and then bringing it all together at the end.
This is the second title from 21 Pulp that I’ve read ( check out the stellar Hero Hourly if you haven’t already), and I really respect both the interesting superhero stories they’re putting out and the quality of the art that goes with it. Looking forward to what we may see from this publisher in the future, hopefully with some diversity in characters and genres. They can do it, and you should be there to see it.
