Silver City #4

Silver City #4

Aftershock Comics 2021

Written by Olivia Cuartero-Briggs

Illustrated by Luca Merli

Lettered by Dave Sharpe

Ru harnesses her power as an ancient to timedrop back to LAX, just moments before the explosion, to get Junie out of harm's way. In doing so, however, she sees something she didn't before. Something that will change the course of her existence and challenge everything she knows as truth.

Oh Mickey you're so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind, hey Mickey. It is kind of funny because the cover here looks like he’s one of two things Elvis or a Greaser and either way I’m really good either way. The opening here gives us some great insight and backstory to him as well and I have to say he’s basically a good kid and I feel for him being where he is and for having been there for so long now. Though you can tell his meeting Ru has changed his life, or afterlife if you will, for the better and has given him a new purpose and meaning to the ho-hum existence he was having. The intricacies we see within this story and how the events play out for us are done in such a way that really allows for the reader to feel as if they are a part of it.

I am a huge fan of the way that 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 exceptionally well. The character development we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter do wonders in bringing these characters to life. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story we’re caught off guard by the twists & turns making this so much more interesting than it already is.

How we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen is achieved exceedingly well. I like how we see these layers within the story continuing to evolve with the plot twists and how things take those unexpected moments and run with them which along with the characterisation add so much great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is wonderfully done.

The interiors here are completely and utterly marvellous. The linework is fantastic and then to see how the varying weights and techniques are being utilised to create the detail work we see throughout the book is extremely well rendered. The way that we see backgrounds being utilised to enhance and expand the moments is beautifully done. How they work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is handled exceptionally well. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a great understanding of how colour works.

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The more we learn about this world, these characters and what they can do the more we want to see and know. This is so well written and has such great strong characterisation that is wrapped around some superb interiors and all of it works together to really create something we’ve not seen before. With the mysteries surrounding Ru and those around her as they start to come to light we’re being pulled deeper and deeper into this in some ways that amp up the intrigue and interest factors well beyond their normal limits.