PayBack #1 is a comic written Marcel Dupree & Joshua Metzger with art and letters by Enri Santana and colors by Agnese Pozza. A masked man attacks a convent in search of one person. This is an action-heavy stealth comic with brutal violence and a story that is centered around a secret organization. The leading lady for this tale is Cassandra, she is a former assassin who now lives as a nun. She is skilled in hand-to-hand combat and with a katana. This story begins as night is falling at the convent and a person in a stealth suit is going around attacking nuns, priests, and other occupants. This quiet operation turns noisy and the violence increases as this person gets closer to their intended target. The violence here is significantly bloody with gruesomeness that leads to strong gore. The pacing is steady overall with a stealthy and secrecy-heavy tone. There are many violently intense moments, some with dramatic undertones. The dialogue is conversational and direct with some mid-battle quips and thought narration from Cassandra. There are no word-heavy pages. This is a thrilling debut issue that focuses on bloody violence while still having a familiar but intriguing story for you to follow.

            The art here is drawn in a detailed, lightly rough, serious style with notable shading. The color palette is a majority black, white, and red; this is standard for flashbacks while scenes in the present have additional realistic tones. For scenery there are some trees and quick scenic views. The main location in the present is the convent but in the flashbacks the primary place is the estate of a mobster. The backgrounds are somewhat split between showing the actual surroundings like the walls and architecture or being a gradient color with heavy action lines. The expression level here is a bit below average as these characters tend to maintain hard/unflinching no matter the situation. Anger is the main emotion here with fear a distant second. Faces here have a decent to good amount of detail with just about every look coming across clearly. The main weapons are katanas and firearms. There are many gruesome and bloody attacks that lead to heavy, body part-separating gore. The action scenes flow well with a high amount of panels with the occasional rough moment kept off-screen.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like stories covered in secrecy with strong stealth elements and heavy action that star an Asian woman then this is for you.

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

R. Violence, blood, gore, gruesomeness.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“I’m not here for playtime. I’m off to do the real thing.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1723501762/payback-dont-pray-for-me-pray-for-the-weak/description

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 23

Violent Pages: 12, for 52% 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 – 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 – 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.”