Comics
Review: ‘Chosen’ #1
Dynamite Entertainment teams up with Liquid Comics to create a fast paced action packed book that is already teeming with that wow-factor. Chosen, created by Marcus Nispel, has made its own niche in comic genres, mixing some shaolin style themes with a dark, gritty fight club style of book. “Chosen” is one helluva surprise to me; usually first issues are slow with lots of emphasis on character introduction, not this book it essentially snags you right at the start and never stops dragging you around on its roller coaster.
CREATED BY: Marcus Nispel
WRITTEN BY: Chuck Dixon and Gotham Chopra
ART BY: Edison George and Liquid Comics
PUBLISHER: Dynamite Entertainment
PRICE: 3.99
RELEASE: October 24th
The story kicks off with a group of monks offering trinkets to the family of the main character Ryan, in order to have him do a Dalai Lama selection test: picking the correct trinket out of group to signify its connection to the chooser. Ryan picks the correct item and thus starts the rollercoaster; using some ritual magic the monks endeavor to awaken (presumably) Ryan’s past life, this is cut short by the police. The next few pages follows Ryan’s life as he ages from toddler to young man, always slightly different, distant and possessing a foresight like ability. Eventually Ryan finds himself on the wrong side of a blackout rage and uses his shaolin moves to cripple some would-be bullies. So much story progression happens in so few pages by jumping through the years yet still taking time to show Ryan at each stage of his life. There are also subtle foreshadowing events and the use of Ryans foresight, or “spidey sense” if you will, that are key to the plot progression.
From here the story changes dimensions as Ryan is sent to juvenile detention, but here it’s not about righting your wrongs, it’s about staying alive. “Chosen” starts to get darker here as Ryan is put through serious training simultaneously being black mailed by the warden to “let the animal out of the cage”. By the end of the book I found myself wanting to not only learn more about Ryan’s mysterious abilities but also wanting to see him kick the sh*t out of more people.
The art of this book is provided by Edison George and Liquid Comics, the illustrations have a real realistic feel to them contrasting with the non-realistic way this book is progressing; though the lines are hard and well defined there is an element of sketchiness that gives the book its much needed grit. The shading is superb and even a bright day is given a shadowy effect that shows this book is dark and disturbed.
“Chosen” is fast paced, action pack and as the story that grows from dark to ugly. I’m really liking where this book is heading and with only two issues remaining the story will surely pick up its pace… if that’s possible.
3.5/5 Skulls
Reviewed by – GreenBasterd
IDW Dark and Paramount recently joined forces to launch limited comic book tales set in the worlds of Smile and A Quiet Place, and we’ve learned today that they’ll continue hanging around in those franchise universes with two brand new limited series tales.
Entertainment Weekly has exclusively revealed this afternoon that IDW Dark’s Any Given Smile debuts in September, while A Quiet Place: Rising Tides arrives in November.
First up, from writer Stephanie Williams and artist Pablo Collar, Any Given Smile puts a football-themed twist on Parker Finn’s successful Smile movie franchise.
The five-part limited series is “set in January 1995, during the American Arena League football championship game in St. Augustine, Florida. The rising superstar of the Sharks, backup quarterback Dupree, is feeling the pressure from his teammates, the fans, and also the city’s gambling underworld, to whom he owes a considerable debt. Meanwhile, a sports journalist investigates a string of suicides that may be connected to the big game. At the very least, they are connected to a sinister entity that preys on the minds of its victims.”
From writer Declan Shalvey and artist Luke Sparrow, A Quiet Place: Rising Tides will also be a five-issue limited story. The comic book tale “brings the creatures to the Florida Keys, where a father-daughter duo attempt to survive on water in a houseboat.”
EW further details, “This tense family reunion coincides with the arrival of the vicious creatures that hunt through sound. Grace and her dad find safety on the open ocean, but she’ll have to make landfall sooner or later; the father’s oxygen tank and their supplies are running low, while a hurricane swiftly approaches.”
Learn more about both comic books over on Entertainment Weekly.
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