Jane Jet: Book One – Nuclear Shadows is a comic written by Amal Desai with art by Paul Essenson, colors by Giuliana La Malfa, and inks by Kashaun Hayden, Jimmy Stewart, and Yko. A WWII heroine goes on the run after killing her husband. This is a science fiction superheroine comic with dramatic elements and plenty of violence. The leading lady for this tale is Jane Martin, she worked alongside her husband Cal, aka Rocket Man, during WWII. Ten years after the war their marriage is tumultuous as Cal is abusive and a bitter drunk. Jane’s neighbor and friend is Tomi, a woman who used to date Isaiah Lewis, aka the Fist of Peace. This story begins with Jane and Cal arguing and Cal has a bloody fist. Cal is threatening Jane amidst reminiscing on his heroics during WWII and the end of his spiel Jane announces that she’s leaving him. Cal does not take this news well. This comic takes place primarily in Mountain West states like Nevada and Colorado. The violence here is mainly physical and very hard-hitting with a small amount of blood and some gore. The pacing here is steady and it has a somewhat dark and partly depressing tone. The intense moments are constant and are a result of high and danger and violence. The dialogue is split between being conversational and giving us narration of Jane’s thoughts. We’ll get a full grasp of how Jane is feeling during this ordeal. There are no word-heavy pages here. This is debut comic that gives us a unique and somber story and it stars a lead who isn’t afraid to make the hard decisions to save herself.

            The art here is stylized and drawn in a slightly cartoonish style with some significant shading. The color range matches the time period with a lot of browns and dark blues. For scenery we have long stretches of the Nevada desert and the snowy forests of Colorado along with some grassy areas. The location changes frequently as Jane is on the move but we’ll visit homes, labs, open roads, and confidential places. The backgrounds tend to show the surroundings but on occasion it can be a gradient color usually with action lines. The expression level here is around average as these characters do give us some different looks. Anger both evil and righteous is the main emotion with fear and sadness bringing up the rear. The faces here are decently detailed and usually show the expression clearly but you may get question it on rare occasion. The violence here is hard-hitting and can get explosive. The blood shown is on the lighter side and there is some gore. The action scenes come in bursts of varying length with an overall smooth flow.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like dramatic superheroine science fiction stories with a tight cast and multiple leading ladies while featuring hard-hitting violence then this is for you.

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

R. Violence, gore.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Different wounds, pain’s all the same.”

 

Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1916968805

 

***** I received this review copy for free. *****

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

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*
*
*
*

Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 50

Violent Pages: 22, for 44% 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 – 4

“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 – 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.”