Broken: The Young Hellions Series Book 2 is a comic written by Braxton A. Cosby, edited by Shontel Cosby, art by Rom Silva, and colors and letters by Julio Rojas Caballero. Keesa and her friends leap into action as Echelon goes on the offensive. This is a post-apocalyptic science fiction comic with a good dose of drama, stealthy espionage, violence, and a lot of characters. The leading lady here is Keesa, she is an operative who is athletic and skilled in combat. Dr. Raymond Gregg is scientist/technician who runs the shelter and he knew and worked with Keesa’s father. Note: This is the second book in this series but the first comic; the first book was a novel(I have not read it). You will be a bit lost if this is the first thing you read. This book begins with Keesa waking up from a nightmare, leaving her hospital bed, and seeing her friends. She doesn’t remember why she was out but Dr. Gregg tells her it was poison, and he begins to fill her in on where they are, how he knows her, and what they are doing. This takes place in a world with zombie-like creatures called ashers who are more intelligent than one might think. The violence here is very gruesome, bloody, and gory, with limb-separation and the like. The pacing is overall a bit slower than average with a post-apocalyptic, underground zombie movie tone. There are a few dramatically intense moments but many more of a violent kind. The dialogue is mainly conversational with a high amount of back-and-forth. There are at least a couple word-heavy pages. This is a sequel issue that drops us right in the middle of things with interesting characters, dangerous foes, and a clear goal.
The art here is drawn in a smoothly detailed, modern style a bit reminiscent of early 2000’s comics with some well don lighting and shading. Overall the color range is wide with a prominent “sci-fi palette” as there are a lot of cool tones from blue to silver and gray. There are rare shots of natural scenery like rivers and tree. The main location is the shelter which has many rooms, some used for living and others for work. They’ll also visit an abandoned city along with more hidden places. The backgrounds more often than not show the actual surroundings but on rare occasions it’ll be a gradient color. The expression level here is around average as a number of these characters try to maintain a hard look. Emotions on display here include anger, sadness, happiness, fear, shock, terror, and rage. The faces have a decent to above-average amount of detail so all the different expressions tend to come across clearly. The ashers have yellow skin with spots so they sort of look like cheetahs. The violence is split between physicality and firearms along with some objects. Things are very gruesome here which leads to a lot of blood and gore. The action scenes come in short bursts with a decent amount of panels and an unconfusing flow.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes, if this is up your alley.
“Would I like this?”
If you like post-apocalyptic science fiction stories starring mainly women and featuring zombie-like creatures, stealthy missions, drama, and gory violence then this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Blood, gruesomeness, gore.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“Look, I’m not doing anything until I get some answers”
Purchase Link: https://cosbymediaproductions.com/store/COMIC-BOOK-BROKEN-BOOK-2-THE-YOUNG-HELLIONS-SERIES-p488056169
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/starchildcomics/starchild-comics-the-broken-series-project/description
***** I received this review copy for free. *****
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 22
Violent Pages: 6, for 27% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% 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 – 5
“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 – 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.”
