START AGAIN #4 is a comic written by Jaime Me with art by Neri Rearte. Ajay heads to the nearby football stadium for a meeting with Valour. This is a superfolk science fiction comic that takes place in the Northern UK with heavy drama, gruesome violence, and shocking revelations. The main man here is Jump, real name Ajay Verma. He has super strength, toughness, and other abilities. He has been on the run from the government after a public incident lead to him being ostracized and hunted. His girlfriend is Natalie Brown, after a one-stand with Ajay she discovered that she was pregnant and now they are both in hiding. Valour, real name James, is Ajay’s friend and former sidekick who is being pressured by the Prime Minister to deal with Ajay. This comic begins with people around the UK watching the news about the upcoming meeting between Jump and Valour at Elland Road. We then see Ajay, Natalie, and Mouthy meeting with a man who can help this troubled couple escape. While this is going on Valour is getting his marching orders from the Prime Minister Thea Truss. The violence in this story is very gruesome with plenty blood and gore. This moves at an overall steady with the speed picking up during action scenes. The tone here has superhero vibes along with an action movie-like final showdown feel. There are many intense moments due to violence and drama. The dialogue is mostly conversational with some narration from Valour and an English talking style from most characters. There are no word-heavy pages here. This is a stirring issue that gives closure to key characters along with providing answers to many crucial questions.

            The art here is drawn in a somewhat smoothly detailed modern style with good lighting. The color range is wide with most of what we’ll see being light in tone. Unless you count the grass/turf on a soccer pitch there isn’t any natural scenery here. The main location is the Leeds football stadium with the other important spot being Ajay and Natalie’s home. The backgrounds do a good job of showing the surroundings both immediate and distant with gradient colors really only appearing during action moments. The expression level here is around average as some characters attempt to look hard while others react to what happens. Emotions on display here include happiness, anger, disappointment, rage, shock, confusion, and fear. The faces have a decent to average amount of detail which leads to most of the expressions being clear. The mystical/power effects glow bright and soft. The violence is delivered mainly through physical means though swords do get involved. There are many gruesome attacks that lead to heavy gore and a large amount of blood. There is one long action scene with slight breaks in between and an overall smooth flow with occasoinal stylized panels.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like superhero science fiction stories that star an Indian man in the UK with a pregnant girlfriend and that has heavy drama, gruesome violence, and subterfuge then this is for you.

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

R. Violence, blood, gore, gruesomeness, nudity.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“I didn’t want to have to do this.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jamieme/start-again-4-the-finale/description

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 40

Violent Pages: 11, for 28% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 1, for 3% 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 – 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 – 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.”