The Impure #1

The Impure #1

Scout Comics/Nonstop! 2021

Written & Coloured by Ralf Singh

Illustrated by Hannes Rakdo

Lettered by Marc Schmitz & Ralf Singh

The newest entry in the Scout NONSTOP! Imprint. Years after Nero and Minerva's homeworld, Castor, was destroyed by aliens, the siblings join the dreaded Earth Forces, to ensure something like this will never happen again. When Minerva betrays her Nero, and all they ever believed in, it is up to Nero to stop his sister before she reaches the alien alliance. For what Minerva has stolen may well turn the tides of war and spell humanity's downfall. Enjoy the World Premiere issue followed by the entire story collected soon after in one volume.

Wow what an unexpectedly powerful issue this is and it certainly makes me want to see the entire story. These first issue teasers is you will certainly do the job of what is traditionally seen int he opening and capture the readers’ attention, interest and imagination leaving them with the desire to see and know more. I have to say that naming the children after a Roman Goddess and a Roman Emperor was a stroke of genius and it adds another layer to the story that should be taken into account considering what it is we see happening here.

I like 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 beautifully. The flashback to when they were kids and how that relates to what we see today is very well placed within the story and it generates a lot of questions thus engaging the reader nicely. The character development that we see is intriguing and that the kids have come to a decisively different conclusion based on matters at hand showcase something that I’m not prepared for. Why because there’s something wrong in the state of Denmark and while I have a clue the whole picture isn’t clear at this time. The pacing is superb and as we see it take us through the pages revealing the story it just captures your imagination perfectly.

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How we see this being structured with the layers within the story emerging taking us to different places the intrigue factor rises exponentially. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow along with how we see it move everything ever forward is really rather quite nice to see.

The interiors here are nice. I will say that what we see is a little more simple than I was expecting as the linework feels more consistently one weight but we see varying techniques and the detail is here and it’s fantastic! Not gonna lie i’d like to see more backgrounds being utilised but what we do see certainly enhances the moments and brings us this nice depth perception, sense of scale and the 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 solidly talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is nicely 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 well done. Though i’d like to see some more gradation being utilised alongside the colour blocking just to add a little extra dimension.

A very interesting story and that the kids are seen as The Impure, blunt instruments for their supposed masters. They certainly set up an intriguing dynamic here and it will be interesting to see what happens when their rabid dog realises that doing the right thing, like momma used to say, is turning on the one hand that feeds you while smacking you around with the other hand. There is a lot going on here and it’s only just the beginning so order the trade if you haven’t picked this up or heck if you did pick this up you are going to order the trade and tell all your friends to do the same. Great writing with interesting characters and charming interiors make this a great addition to your reading list.