Fierce #1 is a comic written by Gabriel Smith with art by Raymond Sanders and Leonardo Giron. Aaron has to balance basketball, prom dates, and Halloween while the Crimson Stalker battles a new villain. This is a science fiction superhero comic with violence and drama that stars a high school freshman. There are two main men here, the first one we meet is the Crimson Stalker, he is a seasoned superhero who uses many different gadgets to fight crime. The second guy we meet is Aaron Adams, he is a high schooler who wants to play pro basketball and is currently hiding a secret ability from those close to him. His close friends are Jennifer and Max and collectively they used to be known as “The Dork Patrol”. For the Crimson Stalker his story begins on Halloween night with him overlooking the city of Hugo as he does his patrols when he learns of a break-in at a closed research facility. Aaron’s story begins with his mom waking him up early so he can get in some extra basketball practice before school. The action here is mostly physical with some explosiveness and rough hits. The pacing is steady overall with some slower talking moments. The tone is a mix of a superhero tale and a coming-of-age story. There are intense moments due to violence and drama. The dialogue is mostly conversational with a lot of back-and-forth and light joking. There are at least few word-heavy pages. This is an interesting debut issue that gives us two characters to follow: one an aging, seasoned superhero and a teenager whose relatively normal life is about to change.

            The art here is semi-cartoonish with some stylizing and looks like something you’d see on an animated show in the late 90’s/early 2000’s. The color range is both wide and realistic with a lot of variety on each page. For scenery we have many trees, trimmed lawns, and large park with a river. The main location for this story is Hugo High with the important areas visited being a research facility, Aaron’s home, and Webber Park. The backgrounds tend to show both the distant and immediate surroundings which helps add extra weight to the different scenes. The expression level here is a bit above-average as most of these characters can change looks on a panel-by-panel basis. The emotional range consists of happiness, confusion, anger, shock, and fear. Faces here have a decent to good amount of detail so all the different looks come across clearly. The electric effects shine bright and standout on the page. Violence here is primarily physical with some explosions and projectiles. There is no gore and a little bit of blood. The action scene is technically just one long sequence that is divvied up in bursts; it has good panel breakdown and flows well.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like superhero science fiction stories that star a black teen and a masked hero while featuring high school drama, violence, and a bit of humor then this is for you.

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

PG-13. Violence.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Whatever. So bae, you ignoring my texts now?”

 

Unboxing Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTXQSnaU81w

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 31

Violent Pages: 9, for 31% 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 – 2

“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.”