Chariot #2

Chariot #2

AWA UPshot Studios 2021

Written by Bryan Edward Hill

Illustrated by Priscilla Petraites

Coloured by Marco Lesko

Lettered by Andworld Design

The Chariot was a Cold War-era secret government project to provide its star agent with a weapon unlike any other in the form of a supercharged muscle car. It sank into the ocean decades ago, and the agent along with it. Now, a petty criminal looking to reform his life has stumbled upon the Chariot, and he's about to find out that the agent's consciousness is still controlling it in this synthwave thriller.

Okay last issue started us off interestingly enough but this issue takes us deeper into the story and sets up new adversarial relationships and lays the groundwork for how Gillian and Jim are going to work together. This is how you set parameters for a working relationship when one of you is a consciousness in a cars computer and the other is a low level criminal who isn’t very good at what does there are sacrifices that you have to make. What Bryan is doing here is pretty interesting and spectacular and while at first I thought it was a Kit upgrade but it is so much more than that and it’s its own unique identity.

I am a fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see thanks to how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. I’m serious too because how their relationship goes, unfolds and is laid out is some damn fine writing. The character development is utterly amazing and how the dialogue does this along with how the characters act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter is beautifully done. The pacing here is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story and adding in those twists and turns along the way it really sets thing sup beautifully for what comes next.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, evolve and change is interesting to see take place. The opening was different and kind of creepy but it opens up another avenue to be explored exceptionally well. I do like how we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward.

The interiors here are fantastic! I love the linework here and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this kind of detail work is extraordinary. Also the fact that we see Gillian as a type of holographic projection so that the colour is how her linework comes across is completely and utterly brilliant to see happen. I’d like to see more backgrounds being utilised because when they are they really enhance the moments and bring this great depth perception, 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 remarkable eye for storytelling. The colour work is gorgeous. To see the various hues and tones within the colours utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is beautifully rendered. Then the holographics that we see showcase a brilliant eye and mind for how colour can and should work. The talent, skill, creativity and imagination that is on display here is phenomenal.

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This is a fascinating story so far and it has all the elements of this modern day science fiction story that feels like it may be in familiar vein it’s anything but, familiar that is. There are a lot of angles happen simultaneously and I love that complexity and depth to the storytelling. The last page is utterly gorgeous and leaves with a true cliffhanger ending and I want to know what’s next.