Writer: Robert Kirkman / Penciller: Chris Samnee / Colour Artist: Matt Wilson / Letterer: Rus Wooton / Editors: Sean Makiewicz & Kate Caudill / Designer: Andres Juarez / Skybound via Image Comics
1st July 2020
The Pitch: Owen Johnson's journey to China to learn about his birth parents eventually leads him to a mysterious Shaolin Temple. The students there study to rediscover the Fire Power, the lost art of throwing fireballs. A power they claim will be needed soon to save the world. Will Owen Johnson be the first person in a thousand years to wield the FIRE POWER?
It's an oft-used set-up: The stranger from a strange land travels to the East to learn mysterious – and possibly magical – martial arts as a way to make whole what is broken in their lives. We've seen it in Kung-Fu, we've seen it in The Karate Kid (Part II if you want to nit-pick). Hell, comics do it all the time. Look at Iron Fist. For that matter, look at Batman. Why do we like this trope so much? What is it about this that makes it so appealing? So universal? Well, one answer is that it pretty much always uses the 'Old Man by the side of the road' element found in Joseph Campbell's mono-myth and there's something about it that we seem to find deeply comforting. There's the dual-journey nature: The journey taken without, to the place you must go... and the one taken within, to become the person you must become. But on a subconscious level, I think there's something else at play: The need to connect with people, regardless of what land they hail from and the need to connect the past to the future, to carry it with us as we move forward. That can also be said of the repetitive nature of comics and comics storylines. But look, enough about what I like. Let's talk about whether or not I think this book is any good...
Kirkman knows the beauty of the decompressed story line. He's not afraid to let things breathe, to control that breath the way a Sensei might teach you to control yours.
Got to be honest, if it's on this site, I think it's good. Not wishing to drown me or you in the rising waters of misery that swamps the internet these days, I've made this website a place to talk positively about comics. There are plenty of critical sites out there so please head to them if you want something a little more biting. “But why do you think it's good?”, I hear all eight of you ask! Aw, shucks. I'll tell ya! For a start, Kirkman knows the beauty of the decompressed storyline. Of taking the opening act of a thing and expanding it so it swallows the reader whole. He's not afraid to let things breathe and to control that breath the way a good Sensei might teach you to control yours. That's not to say he can't deliver the moment. He just likes to be the one to set the postal schedule. One of my favourite things, when I worked in comics retail, was our oft-comedic takes on the dividing tabs in the back issue boxes. Walking past 'The Walking Dead' tab one day I noticed someone had added a sticker saying 'IT NEVER ENDS!' Back then, that was true. Spoiler: it ended! But as I'm sure many fans of Invincible and Oblivion Song know, Kirkman commits big time. He's gonna tell you a story. Get comfortable. And this is a good one. Kirkman takes what would be a training montage in anyone else's book and opens it up, letting the ideas bloom outward. What's cool about this approach is that there is actually very little action in this martial-arts action story. But when it hits, it's with the fury of a thousand fists. You feel the stakes because you've spent time with these characters. You know their names, feel their losses. Kirkman is so good at this, you really wish they'd let him write an Iron Fist title set entirely in K'un-Lun in his Marvel days. Ah, all that could have been...
Samnee uses sparse lines to create hidden depth.
He's not the only master storyteller on this book, though. If Kirkman brings the power, it's Chris Samnee that brings the fire. I fell for Samnee's style back when he did Black Widow with Mark Waid. Now I'm desperately trying to find everything he's ever done. He makes me think of a Daredevil or Batman: Year One-era Mazzucchelli who found the sunshine. Samnee uses sparse lines to create hidden depth. His panels’ designs are amazing, never going so far as to tip over into experimentation and thereby risking losing the reader, but still giving you the best flow for the eye. The motion and emotion he creates just cannot be equalled right now. I feel like he's one of those artists who needs to give a turn at every major character at some point. He and Matt Wilson know how to use shade and shadow, hiding the exact amount of information from you, until they're ready to strike and sink back into the dark again.
But Wilson's not afraid to bathe the scenes that need it in light, either. This is a book that mostly takes place on a mountaintop so Wilson keeps the colour temperature warm and open, especially once we're past the cold blues and enclosed spaces of the opening few pages. Wooton's letters are effective, giving us the sound of the martial arts and the tempo of the voices perfectly. Setting the letters so that you feel the movement of the characters as they train, creating the SFX so that they impact you in both the eyes and the ears is no easy task, but Wooton does wonders here. In fact, the whole look of the trade (including Andres Juarez's design) is beautifully rendered, making it the best-looking book on the shelf in a while.
I can't leave this review without touching briefly on the release pattern for this book, something that I think might become increasingly normalised in comics. The first major part of the story is being released as 'Volume 1: Prelude' in OGN form, with #1 of a monthly, floppy series being released (in this case) as a free comic book day giveaway. Since FCBD didn't happen this year, #1 has been made available with purchases of the TPB, with #2 onward hitting the shelves in single-issue format. It's an odd strategy, effectively reversing the business model. But it's one worth keeping an eye on. This opening salvo gives you 150-odd pages for ten bucks. That's a helluva lot of firepower.
Buy Image comics here and support The Comic Crush. At Gosh Comics, you can pick up Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3 and Volume 4 of Fire Power.