RISE #1 is a comic written by Trevor Fernandes-Lenkiewicz with art by Ryan Best and colors by Fabi Marques. Jon tries to balance a new relationship and his new occupation as a superhero. This is a superhero comic with a good amount of drama, light violence, and intense situations. he main man here is Jonathan Prufrock, he is a man with various superpowers including: hearing, strength, and speed, among other things. His abilities are strengthened by dopamine. He is frequently pondering about his place in the world and why/if he should perform these heroic actions. He has a girlfriend named Isa who thinks that he should use his powers for good. This story begins at a bar where Jon sees and introduces himself to Isa. Things soon get hot and heavy in the bathroom but they are interrupted as Jon must quickly leave to do something heroic. There is a bit of violence but there isn’t any blood or gore. The pacing here is steady and the tone is a like an origin story superhero movie. This is mostly calm but there are intense moments due to danger, violence, and destruction. The dialogue is conversational for the most with a modern talking style though there is some narration Jon provides mid-situation. There aren’t any word-heavy pages but a couple get close. This is an interesting debut issue that stars a man who struggles with finding meaning and reason in being a superhero.

            The art here is a drawn in a smoothly modern style with well done lighting and shading. The color palette is realistic with a large amount of warm tones, especially red. This takes place deep in Manhattan so the only natural scenery we’ll see are some trees and the rivers. There isn’t a primary location as this story goes all over the place from apartments to bars to random city streets. The backgrounds usually show the immediate and distant surroundings but occasionally it’ll just be a gradient color. The expression level here is above-average as feelings play a big role here. The emotions we’ll see are sadness, anger, fear, happiness, shock, and confusion. The faces here have a decent to good amount of detail so all the different expressions come across strong and clear. There is a substantial amount of destruction here but not really any actual violence. No blood or gore. The action scenes usually come in one-page bursts except for a lengthy one; there are many panels overall and there is a smooth flow.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like superhero stories starring a man struggling with being a hero that features drama and destruction then this is for you.

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

R. Violence, destruction, sexual situation.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Why am I here right now?”

 

Purchase Link: https://www.darkknightnation.com/product-page/rise-1

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thehelix/rise-comic/description

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 34

Violent Pages: 9, for 27% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 2, for 6% 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 – 4

“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.”