Icon vs. Hardware #1 – Reginald Hudlin/Leon Chills, Writers; Denys Cowan, Yasmin Florez Montanez, Artists; John Floyd, John Stanisci, Colorists; Christopher Sotomayor, Colorist
Ray – 7.5/10
Ray: The second Milestone comic to launch this month, this is an odd one—because it’s essentially two comics in one. The first installment, with Denys Cowan on art, is fascinating. Focusing on Curtis Metcalf—still on the run after the events of Hardware—as he delves into a mystery involving the works of the genius Black scientist Benjamin Banneker, it soon turns into a time travel tale. Curtis starts exploring the timestream, seeking to undo the mistakes of his own past. He interferes to keep his father from dropping out of his life, and then tries to help himself make better choices when dealing with Alva in the past. It seems to work, giving Curtis a fresh start—but also attracting the attention of Icon, who is investigating the changes in the timestream. These are both two fascinating characters, and I’m looking forward to seeing them at odds. And Cowan’s art is always a highlight.
The thing is, the second story does not mesh with the rest of this book at all. Yasmin Florez Montanez is definitely a talented artist, but the glossy, vaguely anime-inspired style is a polar opposite from Cowan’s. The story focuses on Rocket in boarding school in the Swiss Alps, where she and her roommate are dealing with a collection of particularly sadistic mean girls. This story seems to be geared towards a younger audience at first, but it contains some seriously dark elements—including a fairly graphic depiction of a teen suicide in the opening pages. The mood whiplash and story whiplash between the two segments is really drastic, and while I love the character of Rocket, I found the Hardware segment much more compelling. Overall, it’s an interesting experiment, but I’m not sure the experiment is working yet, and I don’t know how the two stories will converge.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
