ExtraOrdinary #0

ExtraOrdinary #0

Titan Comics 2021

Written by V.E. Schwab

Illustrated by Enid Balám

Coloured by Jordi Escuin Llorach

Lettered by Rob Steen

Set in the years between Vicious and Vengeful, ExtraOrdinary follows a teenage girl named Charlotte Tills who survives a bus crash and becomes EO – ExtraOrdinary – gaining the ability to see people’s deaths in reflective surfaces.

I wish this were a full issue but it’s only a zero introductory issue so it’s only eleven, twelve if you count both pages in the two-page spread, pages long. Still I like this regardless because Shades of Magic is such a well written and illustrated book from Titan Comics so I’m game for everything that comes down the pike at us. Also I have yet to read any of her novels so these have been my only exposure to her work and I have tos ay she’s one heck of a talented writer and storyteller. So this one is for me another introduction to a novel series and I like that we get to see this little origin style introduction that explains things in a way that allows us to head into the next four issues without feeling lost or taking up too much space to tell within the story proper.

I do like the way that this is being told even if it is truncated. 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 narration is splendid and it allows to get an inside look into her mind and how it works which of course is always a big help. The character development that we see is phenomenal and a lot of that has to do with the interior artwork as it does the writing itself. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story it is easy to get caught up in what’s going on.

How we see this structured and the layers within the story start to emerge which will find their way into the main feature are interesting and engaging already. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is extremely nice to see.

I am absolutely loving the interiors here. The linework that we see with its varying weights and techniques that are being utilised to create this amazing attention to detail is mindbogglingly brilliant. I mean the imagery that we see really is beyond what I could have hope for or expected to see though let’s be honest Titan Comics does have this habit of getting some of the most top notch talent working on their books. That we see backgrounds being utilised as they are and how they are seen within the composition of the panels that bring us this depth perception, sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story is brilliantly rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see angles and perspective in the panels show such a masterful eye for storytelling. The colour work is equally as brilliant to behold. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work really gets to showcase someone who understands how colour works. How light sources or the rain refracts the light is beautifully rendered and it makes such a huge difference in how we view this.

​

I am excited for what’s to come next. I get that the accident and her head injury was able to knock something loose or together as the case may be so she can have visions is something that is believable and plausible. Head injuries are no joke and they have a way of doing things to folks that allows them to do things they’ve never been able to do before. I can’t wait, I wish this was a full length issue and I hope we don’t have to wait too long for the first issue because I really want to know what’s next.