Metal Head #1 is a comic written by Michael S. Katz with pencils and inks by Bruno Abdias and colors by Julio Santos. A man living life as a mindless slave to aliens finds himself resisting his programming. This is a sci-fi story taking place in a dystopian Australia with a strong cast and a compelling plot. Our main man is Phil, a guy whose unique physiology has given him the ability to change his situation. Also playing a prominent role in this story is Janeena, a Rokarion scientist who is a member of a revolutionary group. The story begins with some world-building and preamble about how the aliens came to earth before launching into the main plot. Phil’s struggle to understand what is going on and the world’s reaction to him are key elements to this tale. The action here is explosive with hard hits and some light blood. The pacing is mostly a bit slower than average as there is a lot of information to soak in and the dialogue is very conversational. The intensity is high almost all the way through as Phil is constantly looking over his shoulder. There are a bunch of wordy pages as these characters are talkers but it doesn’t read slow and isn’t full of technical language. This is a debut comic that gives us an interesting premise, a unique world, and some strong characters with even more lurking the background.

            The art style here will remind you of older comics which fits this story perfectly. It looks like realism was aimed for with the coloring so most of what you see looks familiar. The scenery goes from high-rise buildings to a diner off the side of the road so we get a broad range of environments. The locations have fleshed out interiors that add a little extra to the scenes. More often than not the backgrounds will show location-specific things when zoomed in on a character. The expression level here is about average as these characters don’t show their emotions too much. The range is decent though most of the looks are fearful or angry. The faces are drawn well with good focus on the details; it is for plot reasons why these characters aren’t as outwardly emotional as they could be. The action is explosive, full of gunfire, and hard-hitting. The violent scenes have good flow and there is some light blood, no gore.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like sci-fi stories with aliens taking place in a dystopian Australia with looming threats and sneaking around this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Violence, nudity.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Good point Phil. Whatever gets you through…”

 

Physical Link: https://stridernolanstore.com/shop/ols/products/riot-earp-1

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/riotearp/metal-head-nsfw-sci-fi-for-adults-only/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

*
*
*
*
*

Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 48

Violent Pages: 13, for 27% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 3, for 6% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 3

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 2

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 3

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 3

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”