On Call Heroes #1 is a comic written by Tonicmole with art by Illustrator Monk and Jakub Sebesta. Kierra, Nora, and Alice go on the hunt for a water-based cryptid. This is a supernatural superheroine comic with mystery elements and a cast of only women. The leading ladies here are: Kierra, she is super-strong and nearly invincible, Nora, she is extremely intelligent, and Alice, she runs a website for cryptid sightings. All these women and more all live in the same house. The story begins with a flashback of Alice when she was in high school and first started her website before moving forward to the current day where the On Call Heroes(Kierra & Nora) receive a job. Unfortunately this job isn’t actual hero work, it’s a birthday party. However Alice brings up the fact that there is a cryptid that may be responsible for missing people. The violence in this comic is physical with no blood or gore. The pacing here is steady with a lighthearted mysterious tone. There are a few intense moments here due to danger and violence. The dialogue here has a lot of back-and-forth with early narration by Alice. There are no word-heavy pages here. This is an interesting issue that uses familiar characters to tell a different kind of story that leans more towards the creepy and unknown. There is also a bonus comic called “Possum Girl vs. Hobo Girl”.
There are two different kinds of art here with one being a bit more stylized and the other, main one being in a modern style. This is all in black-and-white. Most of this story takes place in the outdoors on and around a lake surrounded by thick forests. They’ll get on a boat, make a camp, and conversate around a fire. The backgrounds usually show the surroundings but will occasionally be a gradient color. The expression level here is below average as these ladies don’t really show their emotions. We get some happiness, anger, fear, and a whole lot of smoldering. The faces have a good amount of detail and show the different, rare looks clearly. There is some noticeable face sameness here but thanks to the different hairstyles there won’t be any confusion. The violence here is physical with no blood or gore. The action scenes come in bursts with a low amount of panels. Most of the women here put on swimwear at some point and they most of them have large breasts and a model-like look.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes, if this is up your alley.
“Would I like this?”
If you like supernatural stories starring superheroines and an investigative friend with mystery elements and an all-women cast then this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
PG-13. Violence, outfits.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“Have you ever hunted a cryptid before?”
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/oncallheroes/on-call-heroes-1-comic-book/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
*
*
*
*
*
Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 29
Violent Pages: 5, for 17% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 3, for 10% 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 – 1
“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 – 1
“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.”