Independent Comics

The Earth-16 Comics Wire

Review: “Echoes of the Triumphant” no. 2

Things are starting to heat up in Reverb Comics’ “Echoes of the Triumphant no 2.” Ever since the chemical accident that has made some of the citizens of Echo City into Tweaks, or metahumans with special abilities,  Adrian has gone from MMA fighter to beleaguered accountant to a wanted vigilante. And from the last issue, with some help from his brother Martin (a Tweak who can control computers),  he has also stolen a suit of state-of-the-art armor from X-Pel (an organization aimed at policing the Tweaks and Echo City) to help him with his mission to track down Lionheart, the leader of the Tweaks.

Property of Reverb Comics

With the first and second issues, comic writer Pat Murphy introduces us to Adrian, a young man who is  just starting to figure out his purpose in the post-accident Echo City. Now, it seems that the vigilante may be in over his head. While Adrian is a formidable fighter and a capable investigator (is able to take on two Tweaks and is able to successfully track Lionheart’s money laundering activities to a strip club), he is still just a non-powered vigilante fighting against superhuman Tweaks. Even with a super-powered suit, Adrian does not know what he is getting himself into. A lesson he will soon learn.

While investigating Lionheart’s activities, he is admonished by his sister Alida who warns him to be careful. Little to Adrian’s knowledge, she sends over a friend to follow the neophyte vigilante and keep an eye on him. We learn that this friend of Alida’s is Loretta who happens to be a Tweak. 

Property of Reverb Comics

After Adrian encounters and gets beaten to a pulp by Lionheart, who is a muscle bound lion and human hybrid, Loretta comes to his rescue using her teleportation powers. He is taken to Loretta’s dimension at the behest of Alida. In addition, his sister urges Loretta to train Adrian to fight the Tweaks. Here, we also see Adrian’s arrogance. He feels that as an MMA fighter, he does not need any training but Loretta reminds him that he almost died at the hands of Lionheart. Adrian reluctantly takes Loretta up on her offer but he is quickly kicked out of her dimension for trying to make a move on her.Later on,  Adrian finds Martin and they both decide to return to his apartment 

Meanwhile, Richie, an acquaintance of Adrian,  comes to Adrian’s apartment to tell Alida that he was fired for stealing the X-Pel armor he created (when it was Adrian who stole the armor). We learn that Richie needs medication after being exposed to the chemicals from the accident. It seems that he struggles with both anxiety and evil thoughts. Haunted by the lingering thoughts, Richie screams at them to shut up much to Alida’s horror.  When Adrian and Martin return, the former throws Richie out much to his sister’s dismay. Saddened, Richie is still haunted by evil thoughts until, at the end of this issue, he meets a Tweak who shows him surveillance footage of Adrian stealing the X-Pel armor. 

The story has gotten interesting and is connecting the characters. Adrian is hellbent on taking down Lionheart so that he could get the promotion he feels he deserves. However, it seems that his desires cause him to push people away. For instance, his arrogance and lust pushed away the aforementioned Loretta who offered to train him for his war against Lionheart. In addition, his desire to take out Lionheart caused him to push Richie away. Furthermore, Adrian always viewed Richie as a stalker or a tag-along and not a true friend. When I read this issue for a second time, I felt sorry for Richie since it seemed that he needed a friend and that Adrian further hurt him by not only kicking him out but stealing his armor which got him fired. And amidst all this, Alida has to pick up the pieces caused by the mess Adrian creates.

Property of Reverb Comics

While the art done by Jarrod Bezzina has been amazing due to showcasing the character designs, I feel that there needs to be more in depth setting in the panels.  For example, the first three panels of Alida talking with Adrian on the phone made me wonder whether she was at his apartment or if she was outside. The only way I was able to realize that she was outside was when she was handing flowers to a Tweak and the fourth panel showed her outside the store. I also feel that the timing of the panels is a little too quick at times. One notable example of this is on page 7 when Adrian is infiltrating Lionheart’s operation. I would have loved to see more panels of him running to evade fire from the Tweak and then changing into his suit. However, the fight scenes between the Tweak, and eventually Lionheart were my favorite panels since they showed a lot of action-to-action panel scenes. 

Overall, the story and art of the comic are great and I am looking forward to seeing where “Echoes of the Triumphant” goes!

Written by Pat Murphy

Art by Jarrod Bezzina

Letters by Michael McAdam

Edited by Alexi Kott

The Earth-16 Comics Wire

Review: Black Cotton

Black Cotton

Publisher: Scout Comics

Writers: Patrick Foreman and Brian Hawkins

Art: Marco Perugini

Letters: Francisco Zamora

Patrick Foreman’s and Brian Hawkins’ (Don’t Ever Blink) latest comic Black Cotton is set an alternate universe where the black race is the majority and the white race is the minority. The story centers around the Cottons, a powerful and wealthy black family who owns Black Cotton Ventures, a successful business that has roots dating back 400 years in America’s history. The elite family’s world is rocked when the news of a black police officer shooting a young minority white woman hits the airwaves. That police officer is Zion Cotton, the son of Black Cotton mogul and Elijah Cotton.  As a result, a furious Elijah puts his daughter, and Zion’s sister, Qia up to the task of cleaning up the family’s image while the entire country becomes embroiled with protest from white minorities.  

Courtesy of Scout Comics

When I read this comic, it took me to a parallel universe that is a mirror of our world. This comic portrays an alternate reality where minorities are still affected by the presence of the majority. Only difference is that the majority is a different skin color. In a sense, this alternate reality is a character in the comic. And like our world, it has been teetering on the edge of division caused by political and discriminatory strife.

One of things I enjoyed about the comic is that it shows that had the roles been reverse, society would mostly be the same. If a shooting from a cop, who is of the majority race, on a minority were to occur, protests and riots from minorities would still be triggered. Police officers, especially ones from elite families, would be marked by the media and protests.

Courtesy of Scout Comics

When I read the scene where the news of Zion shooting of the young white woman begins reaching the door step of the Cotton family business, I began to think back to George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, two African-Americans murdered by the very people sworn to protect and serve: the police officers. Like the murder of Floyd and Taylor, the murder of the young white woman at the hands of Zion has sparked protests from white minorities. We see the organization the minorities protesting under “White Lives Matter” signs in front of Zion’s apartment. And we also see that the matriarch of Black Cotton, Zion and Qia’s mother, is willing to give money to the white woman’s family to brush everything under the rug.  

Courtesy of Scout Comics

With the familiar themes of racism and privilege, this comic’s writing does an amazing job of having the reader ask questions about this world that seems, again, similar to our own. Were whites subjugated to slavery like African Americans in real life history were? Did the Civil War end in a different way? Were the Native Americans treated any different? And I know that these questions will be answered with the help of Zion and Qia’s brother, Xavier who is tasked with doing a school project on the history that his family has been a part of for 400 years.

Courtesy of Scout Comics

The comic art along with the pacing of the panels compliments the writing. The panels from the first scene had me asking why Zion was chasing the young white woman. A part of me almost feels that there was more to the story as to why Zion shot the white woman. I also liked how the comic ended on Qia and Zion’s mother asking the family on how much she would give the Nightingale’s, the white woman’s family which the panel was used as a cliffhanger.

I am looking forward to learning how the relationship between Elijah and Zion became strained. Did Zion believe he had a bigger calling that taking over the family business? Does Qia enjoy working for Black Cotton? And what secrets will Xavier find out? Scout Comics will launch Black Cotton on February 2021 and it is on my list of comics to read.

 As many of the characters would say: Black Cotton.