Comic Review: Stealth #1

Stealth #1

Image Comics

Writer: Mike Costa

Art: Nate Bellegarde & Tamra Bonvillain

From the creative minds of Robert Kirkman and Marc Silvestri, a new superhero arrives to Image Comics! Needless to say it’ll not go as a standard super-story would normally, as it takes a dark and, frankly, nerve-racking turn right at the first issue.

The issue kicks off presenting us with a monologue about Detroit, the comics’ main location. Right away we get the impression that Detroit is to this person, what Gotham is to Batman. We get those dark and negative takes on most aspects of the city. We soon find out those are words written by our protagonist, Tony Barber, a journalist who is supposed to be writing a piece on an art fair in the city and not really about its many problems. Tony decides to go for a walk and, on the way out, meets his father, who clearly battles some sort of Alzheimer’s. We then cut away to our hero, Stealth, taking action against a burglar who is trying to steal from a laundry shop. Stealth takes care of the matter in a messy and expensive way, breaking the shop’s window in the process.

Mike Costa takes on the writing for this new series and it is easily one of the best aspects of it so far. The whole novelty of Stealth is the twist revealed at the end of the first chapter (which makes it weird that it was included in the synopsis, but ok I guess) and Costa dealt with said reveal in the most masterful of manners. Cutting, every time, from Tony, saying he’s going somewhere, to Stealth, inaction leads the reader to the most obvious conclusion. “Sure..”, I’d think while reading the chapter, “it’s expected but hey the motivations’ have been established and it’s cool”. Then, suddenly by the end of the chapter, we get a huge surprise (if you didn’t read the synopsis that is…). And one would think that it was the final page of the first issue, but Costa opted for making clear just how serious and dangerous the situation actually is.

Nate Bellegarde is responsible for the line art in this issue. One thing I noticed instantly is that the artist’s style wasn’t quite my cup of tea. The proportions between limbs, head, and torso look a bit off to me, but there’s nothing beyond that really. Despite my stylistic preferences I have to acknowledge the tremendous talent displayed by Bellegarde in this comic. Motion is incredibly well described not only with the well-known motion lines but with a varied use of particle trail (the particles describe the trail and the movement). The colors were assigned to Tamra Bonvillain and they complement the line art beautifully. Every single aspect of the highly detailed backgrounds are colored and it makes it especially impactful when the reader is able to tell the time of day with amazing precision just by the lighting and the shading.

Stealth presents yet a new twist to the superhero genre of comics and it does so with masterful storytelling created by an amazing team of artists who give this new vision all the charm it deserves. I really hope they downgrade the severity of the situation that was just set up right away and keep it as a defining character trait.