Comic Review: Sharkey The Bounty Hunter #1

Sharkey The Bounty Hunter #1

Image Comics

Writer: Mark Millar

Artist: Simone Bianchi

This week we got the release of yet another of Mark Millar’s projects associated with Netflix, this one planned to become a live-action movie to be released on the streaming platform.

Sharkey The Bounty Hunter introduce us to a world of crazy science fiction with some familiar concepts, for instance, intergalactic bounty hunting and weird alien bars. We are also presented, however, a few weird new concepts, for example, an alien identifying as a machine and being mid-transition to her true self. This issue serves as a kick off to the actual story as we get to see how some characters meet for the first time, who they know and who knows them, clearly meaning to situate the reader first before taking off to some crazy Millar script.

We get to know Sharkey, a bounty hunter with financial problems going after a new big score that should clear all of his debt. Sharkey is, however, stuck with Extra-Billy, Sharkey’s latest bounty’s nephew, who demands he must be taken by Sharkey to his closest family member in a distant planet, taking advantage of the bounty hunter’s apparent noble military past.

The writing for this issue is what I consider the best of Mark Millar’s writing: construction. The reader is presented a new universe and the many possibilities contained in it, along with the characters of the story in a very elegant way. Millar makes good use of this universe and it’s inhabitants’ designs to show how things are different rather than focusing on narration or exposition dialogues. Sure, there are a few of those through the comic, but they are scripted in a believable manner so that only the more habituated (and nit picky) reader will notice.

The highlight for this new title will certainly be Simone Bianchi’s artwork. Her character design is amazingly weird and beautiful at the same time making me pretty confident she translates what was on Millar’s mind as he was writing. Her style is incredibly realistic for a sci-fi story, despite her facial expressions looking a bit off here an there although Sharkey’s smug look, faces and poses, show the readers just what kind of character they’re gonna get from this title. Bianchi’s backgrounds are incredibly pretty as they show us enough detail to be awed and get a general grip of the environment. Simone also being the colorist only serves to earn her even greater merit. The colors are presented as if to appear like a watercolor paint was used giving the characters designs’ a bigger depth, contributing with a weird texture and shade to each one of them.

I liked this issue a lot. It shows us a promising universe and interesting characters. But, as I mentioned before, this is what Millar’s appears to do best and, even with Bianchi’s art, I consider it wise to not get my hopes up too high, just so I don’t get disappointed with Millar’s writing yet again. I recommend picking this up so you can see for yourself if it’s worth the money of buying an issue a month.