LatchKey is a comic written by Justin Thomas & Ihmil Herndon with art by Donyell K. Gaskins. Markus’ recordings of his vigilante escapades are being exposed to the public! This is a superhero comic that features sneaky stealthiness, strange mystery, rough violence, and high-tech shenanigans. The main man here is the teenager Markus Smalls, after his parents were murdered he trained to become a vigilante and now records himself fighting crime. His unique ability is his perfect memory; he can even remember being in the womb. This story begins with Markus at work stressing about the fact that he’s lost his phone. While opening up boxes of items to put on the shelves he discovers his phone in a box with a sticky note saying “You might want this back :)”. We are then treated to a sort of flashback-montage about how Markus became a vigilante. The action here can be brutal but there isn’t any blood or gore. The pacing is fast as it is rare for a page to have more than or even a sentence of dialogue. This has the tone of a modern lightly sci-fi movie with a fresh superhero at the helm. There are some violently intense moments as well as some dramatic ones. The talking style is modern with some light tech talk. There are no word-heavy pages here. This is an interesting comic that blends superhero work and social media while starring a young teenager trying to make a difference.

            The art here is drawn in a cartoonish style that is reminiscent of flash animation from the 2000’s. The color palette is realistic with a mix of bright and dark tones. Besides a well-kept lawn there isn’t much natural scenery here. Some of the locations visited here include a convenience store, the high school, particularly the library and the gym, and a lab/warehouse. The backgrounds are split between showing the actual surroundings and just being a gradient color. The expression level here is a bit above average with characters reacting well to what goes on. Emotions go from anger and shock to confusion and happiness. Faces here are simplistically detailed but have large features and they have the ability to get animated which usually results in the expressions being clear. The violence is physical with some hard hits and a gruesome moment but no blood or gore. The action scenes tend to come in one-page bursts and focus on large, single panels.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is something you’d like.

“Would I like this?”

If you like superhero stories that star a black high schooler and features tech-involved stealth, violence, and a bit of mystery then this is for you.

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

PG-13. Violence, gruesomeness.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“He trained himself to fight. To protect.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/midnightcomics/the-midnight-showcase/description

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 72

Violent Pages: 7, for 10% 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 – 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 – 1

“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.”