The Vigilant: The Dimensional Protectorate #1 is a comic written by Eric Alan Nelson and David McCluskey with art by Fabricio Guerra and colors by Marcio Friere. Powerful beings are attempting to keep those more dangerous from being unleashed. This is a thick issue that worldbuilds, introduces us to a bevy of characters, and gives us an interesting story that we are placed in the middle of. Now this comic rotates through a number of people throughout but the person at the center of most of it is a little girl named Domino. Following her we’ll run into many other important people such as Ms. Sweeney/Mother, Wardance, and Massif. The bottom line of the plot is that some beings known as the old ones are asleep, and the consensus is that they should stay that way. But we don’t know the motivations of all the people we meet so that gives this a slight air of mystery. The action involves a lot of magic and will get gruesome but the scenes are spread out so you won’t be overwhelmed. There are some sexy moments but they are very light. The dialogue can get a bit hard to understand when the high-minded people start talking to each other but for the most part it reads like a novel. You can almost bet on a longer issue having more wordy pages but a great job is done here at keeping those to a minimum. This is a very riveting debut issue that builds a great foundation with intriguing characters and gives us something to look forward to.

            The art style here is reminiscent of older comics from the 70’s and 80’s but with more smoothness and detail. The coloring here is realistic but you’ll see a nice range of shades. Bigger comics like this rarely have a central location and this story will have us visit a school, shiny chambers, and a lab/command center. This is a very expressive comic which is great because we see a lot of people and can gauge them based on how they look when they say things. With one of our main characters being a young girl, her reactions to her surroundings is very important. With all the talking that goes on here it is very important that we have visual emotions to match the words. The faces here are ripe with detail which means we are never in doubt about whether the characters are meaning to give off certain looks. In spite of having so many characters there is no face sameness here. We do see some supernatural creatures that stand out and are as off-putting as they need to be. The more mystical/magical effects sit prominently on the page and catch your eye whenever they appear. The action is mostly physical with easy to follow scenes and gore. It isn’t excessively nasty but you will see some blood. Outfits here help tell stories about the characters and will make you curious about backstories. There is a costume worn by a heroine that seems unsuited for combat but that’s about as sexualized as it gets.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like supernatural tales with large diverse casts and a story focused on disaster-avoidance with mystery sprinkle in this is for you.

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

R. Gore, blood, sex stuff.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Most of the time he’s spent down in the basement, where I’m not allowed to go.”

 

Purchase Link: http://www.maelstrommediacomicssite.com/buycomics/

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1254149686/the-vigilant-the-dimensional-protectorate-1/description

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 48

Violent Pages: 15, for 31% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 2, for 4% 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 – 5

“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 – 3

“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 – 3

“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.”