Pennyworth #1

Pennyworth #1

DC Comics 2021

Written by Scott Bryan Wilson

Illustrated by Juan Gedeon

Coloured by John Rauch

Lettered by AW’s DC Hopkins

Spanning the years between the hit TV show and today, Pennyworth tells the continuing adventures of Alfred Pennyworth as an MI6 counterintelligence agent-this time in Cold War-era Soviet Russia. When Alfred and his partner receive intelligence that nuclear weapons are being manufactured near the Arctic Circle, they’re off to infiltrate the remote military base to learn more. But things don’t go exactly as planned, and the ramifications of this mission may be more far-reaching than anyone could have guessed, as our present-day butler gets dragged back into his past…

I watched season one and found myself really enjoying the show and seeing Alfred as a young man. Over the years we’ve learned that he’s had military training and has some mad skills but we’ve never seen that in action before all this. This issue is a great example of getting to see how he handles himself and uses the skills that come in handy with his life now. I hope that at some point we see when he officially starts his professional training, though seeing him as a child and getting his feet wet wouldn’t hurt either.

I love the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold is presented exceptionally well. The character development we see through the dialogue, the character interaction (he and Shirley have some really telling moments), the narration and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a magnificent job in fleshing them out. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story, the characters and the world they live in we’re brought into this world that we’ve only seen on television.

I greatly appreciate the way that this is structured and how the layers within the story emerge and grow. There’s this unique structure to the book that adds depth, dimension and complexity to the story as we timehop through Alfred’s experiences. There’s an electricity to the story that comes across beautifully and unexpectedly and it really leaves an impact upon the reader. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is sensationally rendered.

I’m loving the interiors here. The linework is incredible and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this amazing attention to detail is extremely impressive. How we see backgrounds utilised is pretty impressive as well as they work to enhance and expand the moments. They also work well within the composition in the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the story and the overall sense of size and scope of the story. The visuals here tell a story as well and if you look at where Alfred is and what’s happening around him is amazing to see. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The colour work we see is extremely well rendered as well. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is beautifully rendered.

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I am super impressed with the whole MI6, James Bond kind of vibe that we get from all this. It adds an element to the book that I wasn’t expecting to see but wholeheartedly welcome. That he’s such a complete badass as a young man and you can see just how this plays into his role with Bruce. I cannot express how much this impresses me and just how gosh darn good it is. It has some spectacular writing & characterisation that’s wrapped up in these interiors that work perfectly with the story. It doesn’t get much better or more interesting than this folks, this takes Alfred to a new level earning much more respect than ever before.