Hard Justice #1 is a comic written by Wes Gift with art by Bryce Oquaye and letters by Taylor Esposito. Two men deliver justice around the city while having bigger goals in mind. This is a comic that combines the feel of Blaxploitation and martial arts movies from the 70’s with plenty of action and mid-battle quips. The first person we meet is Joseph “Saint” Raines; a black man who is very good at fighting and likes to make an entrance. The second main character is Rex Samson, a karate practitioner who is out for revenge. The plot is straight out of an action movie with the heroes stopping bad guys before going on to stop badder guys. The action here doesn’t get bloody but it does feature some Mortal Kombat-style bone breaking. The pace is just right as every scene is given time to develop. The tone is that of an action movie so the situations can get intense but the art takes some of the edge off. The dialogue is full of attack puns and tough guy talk. No wordy pages here. This is a debut issue that gives us plenty of action with a good helping of story and stars two no-nonsense people with similar motivations.

            The art style is here is cartoonish and slightly exaggerated with a frequently changing perspective. This is in black-and-white and this makes the smaller things standout more. There are three main locations here: a steamboat, a supermarket, and a nightclub. Each place has a lot of things in the background that remind you of where they are with some items coming into play. The setting of the scene is usually noticeable in the smaller panels. The expression level here is high as these characters sport a new look every time they are drawn. The range is like that of an action movie so no sadness just scowls, sinister grins, and righteous fury. The faces here are very animated so every emotion they show is very clear. The action here is a lot of punching and kicking with scenes that flow well. There are some broken bones and crashes but no blood.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like action stories starring a black guy and a white guy with martial arts and mid-combat quips with an up-tempo pace this is for you.

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

PG-13. Violence.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Big Tony ain’t gonna be happy about this.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hardjustice/hard-justice-1-comic-book/description

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 33

Violent Pages: 19, for 58% 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 – 4

“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.”