I’ve been an avid follower of Matt Miner’s “Liberator” saga since the beginning. I always gravitate towards comics with a real heart, one that exposes the creator as something more than a conduit to the page and more of passionate human being. When I read this book, it’s the passion for the cause that comes through in droves, and it’s what brings me back. “Critical Hit” may be the beginning of something new, but it still has the passion… and the horror of old.
WRITTEN BY: Matt Miner
ART BY: Jonathan Brandon Sawyer
PUBLISHER: Black Mask Studios
PRICE: $3.50
RELEASE: October 1, 2014
The first thing you’ll notice when you open “Critical Hit” is that Jonathan Brandon Sawyer is an absolute beast. Then after that dust settles you’ll see that Miner has pushed Sarah and Jeanette into one super team to champion his cause, and the opening pages of this issue will show you just how determined they are to communicate their agenda.
It’s evident from the first page that this isn’t “Liberator” any more. The art is focused and the storytelling uses dual protagonists to create a more palpable sense of energy than ever before. The result is a grand display of mayhem at the hands of our vigilantes. They ransack a camp, and tear these hunter’s possessions to pieces because well… thier hunters.
It’s all well and good, but it doesn’t serve the same impact or thoughtfulness as before, and Miner makes damn sure they pay for it. Instead of attacking animal testing facilities the girls turn their target onto a more regular type of asshole, but in doing so they incur the wrath of the hunters. They got careless and were forced to the deal with the immediate consequences of their actions. This provides an interesting talking point for the issue, because at first I was concerned that this was an “easy” degradation of Sarah and Jeanette’s cause. But it seems Miner is almost in agreement. How this plays out will truly seal the deal, but for now it seems the Liberators are taking the easy way out.
Jonathan Brandon Sawyer on the other hand, he seems concerned with making the most amount of work possible for himself. His panels are cleanly laid out, and provide the series with the best art it’s ever had. There are certain intimate details in the larger scenes in this book that show worldbuilding at almost every level. To the records on display at the store, to the wallsocket holding an lonely iphone charger in the apartment, this is one helluva artist.
When the book really gets going the action stays clean and is communicated with relative ease. Nothing feels out of the ordinary or disjointed.
For the book itself, I’m a little lost in the shuffle. I sympathize with the cause, and I get behind the idea, I just don’t know if I’m into bringing down to an even more base level. Hunters are assholes, we get it. Hunting isn’t exactly something I’m terribly connected to so perhaps I don’t know the levels to which these people are assholes, but for now it doesn’t seem like a logical extension of their cause and more of misstep given how quickly they burn the cabin to the ground. Then on the other hand, anarchy fucking rules. So I still wait for next issue with bated breath.