Beyond the Breach #5

Beyond the Breach #5

Aftershock Comics 2021

Written by Ed Brisson

Illustrated by Damian Couceiro

Coloured by Patricio Delpeche

Lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou

It's complete chaos as interdimensional bounty hunters descend upon Vanessa and crew. One of our heroes will sacrifice themselves, but will it be enough? Will Vanessa manage to get Dougie home? Is there even a home to return to? And what will happen to everyone else?!

Well this certainly is a crazy issue and I’m enjoying every single moment of it. The great thing about this though is that it really isn’t over, sure the first arc is but there’s still a whole nother arc to be told here before we feel like there’s a sense of closure at least when it comes to Vanessa. Granted it won’t be the same but there’s still plenty of those creatures roaming the Earth and there are new friends and new enemies to be made and there has to be some ramifications after what we see happen within these pages. There is a lot going on here and I like how Ed makes it all feel like it’s a natural flow and that it all fits so perfectly together like some giant jigsaw puzzle whose pieces simply fall in place so easily.

I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a magnificent job in how it continues to flesh out the personalities. The pacing is amazing and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story we are taken through some of the most amazing and traumatic moments the series has to offer.

I am very much enjoying the way that this is being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. I am also liking the way that we see these layers opening up new avenues to be explored. With Vanessa now having been off-world and with her two solid companions things should be much more interesting. What this does is add some great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. The way we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward are impeccably handled.

I am still very impressed with the level of creativity and imagination that we see throughout the book. How these alien species come to life is superb. The linework is clean, crisp and strong and along with the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail within the work that we see are handled extremely well. While I wish we’d have seen more backgrounds being used, how we see the composition within the panels and how they bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story more than makes up for that. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a solid eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a stellar eye for how colour works.

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I really like that this story has made us feel such a wide range of emotions, happy, sad, angry, dismayed, fearful and tearful because it really goes to show that comics as a medium for storytelling can be a powerful thing. The writing here has been incredibly strong, the characterisation is human and the interiors are completely in sync with the story making for such a wonderful read.