By: Nathan Edmondson (writer), Nic Klein (art/colors) & Jeff Powell (letters)
The Story: An assassin on the run.
Recap/Review: Dancer #1 is a very promising start to a series. There’s nothing too unique about the story itself. We’ve all seen this “man alone” story where a spy/soldier/assassin is being hunted by the company/army/government that used to employ him. That theme endures in fiction because it’s compelling and offers lots of opportunity for believable conflict. With stories like this, it’s really a question of how well the creators execute.
The plot is pretty simple: the “organization” (it’s left vague who this group is), decides to kill their star assassin. When they come after him, his real-life girlfriend get’s sucked into the violence. Now they’re on the run together and she’s only learned about 15 minutes ago that her boyfriend is a hired killer. And, there is a wrinkle at the end that I won’t spoil (but it is very good).
What makes this issue work so nicely is that the characters all seem believable and nothing seems forced. There’s no hand-wringing where we see the organization have a meeting to decide this guys fate. Nope–we just see “bad guys” start taking shots at him and he’s suddenly on the run (the sniper scenes are very well-done btw). Further, I like the idea of an assassin that is urbane and sophisticated in his “regular life”. This guy is hunter of men; it makes sense that he’d be intelligent and know about a lot of stuff. And, the inclusion of the girlfriend is a good idea too. I wonder if she’ll be a stereotype (slowing our hero down, but unexpectedly saving his life in a key moment while also allowing us to see his humanity AND illustrating that the “bad guys” don’t care that a regular person might get killed) or whether she’ll have a different role? Either way is fine because without her, you just have our protagonist being hunted and that’s a little too straight-forward.
I also feel like Edmonson really enjoys the subject matter in these types of books. If you follow him on Twitter, he always seems to be learning about guns and bombs and high-tech dohickies. That authenticity makes a big difference. There is a lot of fiction in this genre where things come off the rails because the the creator is an artsy-fartsy guy who screws up basic factual information about guns or military tactics. That just ruins things for me, but with Edmondson (for some reason) I have a confidence that we’re in good hands.
Speaking of good hands, we get to see some Nic Klein art. Has he done any comic work since Viking a few years ago? That was a gorgeous book and whatever Klein has been doing, he hasn’t lost a step. Obviously, there is a world of difference between drawing vikings and doing a modern espionage book, but Klein shows he’s equally at home here. Good storytelling, good panel design, well-drawn characters, nice coloring, etc. It’s got the good from an artistic standpoint.
Conclusion: A very strong first issue. If you’re looking for some modern-day espionage fun, this is a book to check out.
Grade: B+
– Dean Stell