First Defense #2

First Defense #2

Absolute Comics Group 2020

Written by Chris Crosby & Mike Rosenzweig

Illustrated by Tina Francisco

Coloured by Katrina Mae Hao & James G. Brown

Lettered by Zach Matheny & Benny R. Powell

While Tasha Tasker takes her team of time-displaced First Children out for a night on the town, their mentor Nom fights to stay alive.

I am so glad that these books are coming out. I have been a fan of them for years, usually I only see them on Free Comic Book Day and can never find the series. On a personal note this is the first time in my life I ever wanted the President of the United States to let me call him “Daddy!” I will say that this is a hell of a lot more fun than I was expecting it to be and it’s also one of those that almost qualifies as a slow burn. Mainly because we’re still in the learning phase of the story and we have no real idea what is going on with the big picture as of yet. In the meantime I am having a complete blast getting to know Tasha, her friends and hopefully soon her father. Agent Dawson though yeah lets see more of him too.

I am a fan of how 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 beautifully. I am not sure how old Tasha is supposed to be here but I am curious nonetheless. There are a lot of moving parts in this book and I am impressed with the way that they are all able to work with and around each other like the wheels in a clock. Nom is great but it’s really the other First Children I wanna see more of and we get a little bit more and you would think after all this time they’d be a more well formed unit. Then again I think this aspect is one of many that makes me want to know and see more. The character development is fabulous and the more we get to know them the more I want to know. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story it’s takes us on this really nice and fun little journey.

I like the interior artwork here. There is is this absolutely wonderful comic book style to the artwork that we see that reminds me of Todd Nauck, whom I adore. The linework is sensational and how we see the varying weights being utilised to create the detail work is stellar stuff. The President is a hunk and a half so that the characters while remaining comic book characters are able to take on a life of their own through their faces and facial expressions. Personally I would like to see more backgrounds being utilised but what we do see is utterly fantastic. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a strong and talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is beautifully rendered as well. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is impressive.

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One of the things that excites me about this is that there is so much untapped potential within these pages. There are a group of kids with great powers being led by a little green man who has erased all trace of them from the world at large. History doesn’t remember them and I find this to be infinitely fascinating and I want to see, learn and know more. This is exciting to me and I gotta say that this is why I love comics. This great premise with some talented creators coming together to bring us some good old fashioned storytelling goodness.