The Grey #1 is a comic written by Lloyd S. Jones III and Natosha F. Jones with art by Shado. After creating some new technology involving black holes and particles a woman decides to become a heroine. This is a sci-fi story taking place in the real world that follows someone’s first attempt at crime fighting. Our leading lady for this story is Shameka Day; she works as a researcher/scientist for a tech company. The plot begins with Shameka working on her newest project before getting the idea in her head to use what she has for something bigger. The overall theme here is that of a new heroine who has no idea what she’s doing and has to learn on the fly. The action here has rough hits and a light amount of blood. The pacing is steady as each moment is given the proper amount of time to develop. The tone is slightly upbeat as Shameka seems to be a bubbly person. The dialogue is intelligent and the talking style is like your average American. There is one wordy page and it’ll seem a bit longer due to the scientific jargon. This is a debut comic that shows us the origins of what should turn out to be a powerful superheroine, and the different struggles she faces in her life.

            The art here looks like it was drawn with watercolors and has some attention-grabbing shading; some pages look like they were pulled off a painting. The colors here seem to have been chosen with a realistic aim so things here look familiar. There isn’t too much to the scenery here but we do get a few varied locations from Shemeka’s home lab to a random alley. The backgrounds much more often than not contain parts of the scene in them from the metal walls of a lab to the asphalt of a parking lot. The expression level here is above average as Shemeka is an animated individual and sports a new look on an almost panel-by-panel basis. From deep sadness to giddy happiness, there is a wide range of emotions covered here. The faces here are shaded well, have strongly drawn features, and can get animated so the emotions are conveyed well. The hair here looks great. When the tech effects are shown they’ll catch your eye. The action here is physical and a bit bloody with an easy-to-follow scene.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like stories lead by a black woman who has very powerful tech and wants to become a heroine this is for you.

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

PG-13. Violence, death.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Hmm…what to do with this super awesome tech of mine?”

 

Physical Link: https://www.midnightcomics.org/product-page/the-grey-issue-1

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/midnightcomics/the-grey-issue-1/description

Unboxing Link(Prints): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjQ1fBMzOhE

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 24

Violent Pages: 2, for 8% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 1, for 4% of the comic

 

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

 

Violence Level – 2

“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 – 2

“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 – 2

“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.”