Wardance #1 is a comic scripted by Brad Jones & Eric Alan Nelson with pencils and inks by Igor Vitorino and colors by Adriano Augusto & Dan Olvera. Sonya’s assistance is requested after a deadly attack on some youth. This is a supernatural superheroine comic with mystery elements, a bit of drama, and strong violence. The leading lady for this tale is Sonya, she is a teacher on a reservation and she has abilities such as animal summoning and can transform into a seemingly stronger form. Throughout this story she’ll work closely with Ahanu, the Chief. The story begins with Sonya at home when she receives a call about an emergency. She rushes to the scene of the crime where she meets with the Chief and gets the skinny on what happened. This takes place on a reservation in New Mexico. The violence here is physical with gruesome attacks leading to blood and gore. The pacing here is steady with a small town mystery tone. There are many intense moments due to violence. The dialogue is conversational with a decent amount of back-and-forth and rare narrated thoughts from Sonya. There is one word-heavy page. This is an interesting debut issue that gives us a mystery to follow along with a strong lead who isn’t deterred by the unknown.
The art here is drawn in a detailed modern style with significant lighting and shading. The color range here is realistic and pretty wide. Though this takes place in the inner city there are plenty of trees and sometimes grass around all the points of interest. The main location is the basketball court where the central event takes place but a hospital will also be visited. The backgrounds usually show the surroundings but on rare occasion it’ll just be a gradient color. The expression level here is a bit below-average as these characters tend to not have strong reactions to what is going on. The main emotion is fear with rage coming in a close second. The faces are decently drawn and show the different expressions clearly. There are strange creatures here that look like a cross between demon and animal. The violence here is physical with gruesome, bloody attacks that result in significant gore. The action scenes tend to have some length to them with a decent amount of panels and good flow. Sonya’s combat outfit is very revealing, leaving little to the imagination.
“Is this worth reading?”
Yes.
“Would I like this?”
If you like supernatural superheroine stories with an air of mystery that stars a Native American woman and features gruesome violence then this is for you.
“What would this comic’s film rating be?”
R. Violence, gore, nudity.
“Could I get a quote from the comic?”
“Looks like our wolf is gonna need some help.”
Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/maelstromwardance/wardance-1/description
***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***
Probably Contains Spoilers
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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 22
Violent Pages: 5, for 23% of the comic
Sexy Pages: 1, for 5% 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 – 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 – 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.”
