Review: Eponymous #1 / Author: Mike Garley / Artist: Martin Simmonds / Release Date: Out now
“The age of superheroes is over… but when a massacre on a global scale is predicted at the hands of Casey – the first super-powered individual the world has seen for nearly twenty years – the decision is taken to find this new superhero and kill her, before it’s too late.”
Slick, cinematic ultra-realistic, Eponymous is a comic for the generation that grew up weaned on Christopher Nolan’s vision of what superheroes should be. Shadowy government figures dominate the narrative, manipulating global events in response to a young girl’s premonition of an event that leads to massive loss of life, kickstarted by the superhero referred to only as Eponymous.
Writer Mike Garley paints a convincing picture of a world reeling from the consequences of past super-heroics, and manages to hint at a lot in this first issue, leaving a lot of questions unanswered, in much the same way that you could expect from the first episodes of television series like Heroes or Flash Forward. Artist Martin Simmonds sells the story excellently, grounding the action in complete believability. His panel compositions and colour art echo the likes of Adi Granov and Frazer Irving, letting the realistic characters and cityscapes do the storytelling. The beauty of Eponymous is the synchronicity between dialogue and artwork – neither is overly showy, each content to let the plot unravel naturally and events on the page to tell the story. Everything here is effortless and beautifully polished, speaking of the confidence of the creators.
Available to buy directly at eponymous.bigcartel.com and plucked from the pages of VS Comics, a monthly digital anthology edited by Mike Garley and James Moran, Eponymous is a truly accomplished comic. This accessible thriller should appeal to fans of Warren Ellis’ Global Frequency or just about any of the last decade’s more cerebral blockbuster movies, combining fast-paced action with a strong narrative hook. Watch this space.
