Review: Extraman #1
From Kindred Comics
A new beginning, and after a successful Kickstarter campaign, Kindred Comics has released Extraman #1, now available in their online shop.
Former Olympic athlete, Raymond Trust has been protecting the futuristic robo-friendly city of New Brightwood for roughly 6 months as the armoured superhero known as Extraman. Secretly backed by his world-renowned genius inventor wife, Journey, he’s made a lasting impression on the city in the absence of NBPD’s recently decommissioned MKIII robots. However, a strange destructive threat has just arisen in the dark of the night — bigger and more powerful than anything he’s had to face thus far. Safe to say, it’s “boom time, baby.”
Jermaine Riley (artist/writer) and Glen Murphy (writer/editor)
Introducing a new hero can be tough. Being the new hero can also be tougher. Luckily for Extraman, he has some support.
Extraman #1 has a lot of information; sometimes, this can be overwhelming, but I found this easy to read and a good way to work us through the story.
This issue starts off the initial arc, so there is a lot to introduce, although that does bode well for the future, as we then have a lot more of the action and other aspects to read through the rest of the story arc.
Here, in this issue, we are brought Extra Man, who, via his suit, has some extra abilities - there is some fun to be had with acronyms here - and the support of his wife as well.
Raymond’s wife is not just a supporting character. She is also an integral part of the Extraman team, with the know-how of the suit and the inventive ability to produce some new items. Think of a cross between ‘Q’ and Oracle, but with some great added aspects that I’m sure will come into the story in later issues.
The suit and the alien tech are interesting as well. It has some special abilities and links to its past owner. There are some interesting narrative aspects to this as well, and it took me far too long to twig what was happening here, but once you do, it adds well to the story and adds in a future aspect that will shake everyone up.
With all the information, the story works well, with some great speed and interesting action pieces. I do like the supporting characters who are being introduced and look forward to their interactions with Extraman.
There is some excellent art throughout, making good use of the colours, light, and shades. This is especially evident in the big splash pages and the final panel of the issue. The use of the art to show movement throughout the story is well done as well.
This was a fantastic first issue, with some big questions to be answered and a brilliant concept for a new hero and a new way to tell these stories. I look forward to issue #2.
