Canuck Beyond #1

Canuck Beyond Season 1 #1

Chapterhouse Publishing 2020

Written by Adrien Benson

Illustrated by Esteban Calvi

Lettered by Andrew Thomas

CHAPTER ONE: OLD PROBLEMS, NEW BEGINNINGS

The world neared annihilation when the Borealis invaded. While Earth’s heroes saved the world, the greatest of them fell in battle. Or so they thought, Tom Evans, Known tot the world as Captain Canuck has been flung through an interdimensional portal, known as the Shimmer, Captain Canuck finds himself stranded upon an alien world. It will take all of Canuck’s skills to survive and return to Earth. But not before he helps the locals living under a despotic ruler.

This is an exciting debut issue and I love the fact that we are seeing more of the Canuck universe being explored. There are aliens on Earth and they are a part of teams but we’ve really not had the pleasure to see them on their own worlds. So to have this opportunity is sensational that and It really gives Esteban an opportunity to unleash his creativity and imagination. So yeah basically this is the kind of book that opens up a whole new galaxy of opportunities for stories and new series which makes me feel more energised as I read this.

I am rather enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. I like how we see this structured with the introduction of the characters and their world it has this very natural and yet guarded flow to how it’s done that makes sense given the circumstances. I am rather fond of the character development that we see here as well. With just a this as an introduction to the characters we’re already getting a really nice sense of who they are and where they fit into this group dynamic. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story, the world and its twists & turns we get this really wonderful sense of give and take.

How we see the layers within the story already start to emerge as well as how everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow really is beautifully rendered. Also there is this absolutely delicious tension being built around the story’s main villain and we haven’t even gotten to meet him as of yet. Okay I am assuming it’s a he although it’s most often referred to as an it.

The interiors here are really quite interesting. The style reminds me of something we’d see in Heavy Metal or the old school underground comix and mixed with an old favourite of mine James Sherman, whose comic art I really really miss seeing. I love the detail work that we see throughout the book thanks to how the varying weights and techniques in the linework are being utilised. I like how we see the backgrounds here as well as they bring this world to life and provide us with some nice depth perception, a sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is utterly gorgeous. The choice of colours and the various hues and tones within them that we see see being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is really divinely inspired. Wow doesn’t even begin to cover it.

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This is one of the more unique and interesting offerings that you are going to find on stands today, period. There is something about this that not only captures the imagination over the reader but it lights something up inside your mind as well. Fraught with danger and feeling at times ethereal as well as actioned packed this is going be the one book you cannot live without in the next year.