RESONANT #1
Story - David Andry
Art - Alejandro Aragon
Colors - Jason Wordie
Letters - Deron Bennett
Story - David Andry
Art - Alejandro Aragon
Colors - Jason Wordie
Letters - Deron Bennett
It is becoming increasingly more difficult to find words with which I can describe Vault's titles. I may as well just copy/paste and make a template because each book they put out requires every positive adjective out there to remotely do it justice. I'll try though because as with the myriad of brothers and sisters it has at Vault, Resonant is fucking phenomenal.
I won't excuse my language as sometimes a bit of the raw side of things is how to properly describe something. This is absolute truth after reading the first issue of Resonant. Jumping right into the situation (as Resonant does) and managing to envelop you, as a reader, in the characters you're seeing is a very tricky task. I was half way through the book and already talking to myself before the fact that there wasn't a contextual breakdown of everything hit me. I was engrossed in the whole of it from first page to the point that I'd already felt as though I knew this place, these characters, and the broken world they lived in. The facts of the matter are much more point blank. Our world went to hell in a hand basket thanks to WAVES. A decade ago the first one hit and when it did all of the worst of our impulses were released.
As readers we are given the basic outline so we've got enough context needed to believe what we need to within the story being presented. For Resonant that's merely needing to believe that the world has gone to shit, simply living life is done under a constant threat, and the characters you're seeing could very easily be you. The interplay of the family comes off as genuine. The father, you can tell is a kind and good man but obviously HAS to be a certain way in this world. The kiddos behave much as you'd expect right down to the not truly grasping what everything means. Allowing the characters and origins of their world to come about organically and together is what truly cinches the rope around we the reader's waists and pulls us in. Certainly there's much more to the WAVES and what all of that means but that's beside the point. Real world dangers lurk just out of touch right where the light ends and the shadows start. The harm of ignorance (not because of stupidity) looms over the pages while the seeds of dread sprout under the feet of the readers.
Reading the first issue of Resonant was much like slowly turning up the volume looking for the perfect level only to try one more notch on the dial and finding it teeth shattering. I don't mean in a jump scare type of way, but a slow burn that slowly envelopes before you realize your hand is on fire type of way. I find that fitting as the entire premise of the WAVE is that the worst of what's in us is released. This is an unbelievably great hook due to the wholly it's own approach to delivering the cause of what this post-apocalyptic world is reeling in the effects of. It is often stated that the worst horrors are born of our own minds. So many successful horror and terror tales use the "ourselves" as the antagonist directly or as the device through which the blank spaces are filled in. There's no depth to what our own minds can conjure and that is paramount to Resonant. The reason it works so well is due to the fact that the book delivers a direct manner for seeing what is uncovered in these depths but also allowing for we, as the readers, to troll our own oceans of horrible things.
As readers we are given the basic outline so we've got enough context needed to believe what we need to within the story being presented. For Resonant that's merely needing to believe that the world has gone to shit, simply living life is done under a constant threat, and the characters you're seeing could very easily be you. The interplay of the family comes off as genuine. The father, you can tell is a kind and good man but obviously HAS to be a certain way in this world. The kiddos behave much as you'd expect right down to the not truly grasping what everything means. Allowing the characters and origins of their world to come about organically and together is what truly cinches the rope around we the reader's waists and pulls us in. Certainly there's much more to the WAVES and what all of that means but that's beside the point. Real world dangers lurk just out of touch right where the light ends and the shadows start. The harm of ignorance (not because of stupidity) looms over the pages while the seeds of dread sprout under the feet of the readers.
Reading the first issue of Resonant was much like slowly turning up the volume looking for the perfect level only to try one more notch on the dial and finding it teeth shattering. I don't mean in a jump scare type of way, but a slow burn that slowly envelopes before you realize your hand is on fire type of way. I find that fitting as the entire premise of the WAVE is that the worst of what's in us is released. This is an unbelievably great hook due to the wholly it's own approach to delivering the cause of what this post-apocalyptic world is reeling in the effects of. It is often stated that the worst horrors are born of our own minds. So many successful horror and terror tales use the "ourselves" as the antagonist directly or as the device through which the blank spaces are filled in. There's no depth to what our own minds can conjure and that is paramount to Resonant. The reason it works so well is due to the fact that the book delivers a direct manner for seeing what is uncovered in these depths but also allowing for we, as the readers, to troll our own oceans of horrible things.
When done correctly this kind of storytelling is beautiful. Resonant is down right gorgeous. The danger of the WAVES are made quite obvious yet we don't know exactly what they are. The world that exists is given in glimpses but we don't know exactly how bad it is. We're given other clues to the story but we can't hone in on just where we'll be going. What we do have, is our little skiff out in the vast waters and a little trolling motor kicking up all sorts of uneasy thoughts. There are certainly horrors coming for us, but Resonant reassures us both literally and by way of the rope the creative team gives us to swing from. If you're paying attention you'll see how well the book relates just how far away, and how close the world that still exists is. I can't wait to explore both possibilities.
RESONANT #1 LANDS ON NCBD JULY 17th!
0 comments:
Post a Comment