Slash & Burn #1 Story: Si Spencer Art: Max Dunbar Release: November 11, 2015 Rating: 4.0/5 Long Boxes "Another day, another hot date. Firefighter Rosheen Hayes takes her relationships with conflagration seriously, whether it’s the trigger-happy burn victim with his sights on her partner or a chance encounter igniting memories of arson at the orphanage. But is she the super-sleuth fire-whisperer or twisted firestarter?" |
Slash & Burn is next up in an expanding line up of very solid new Vertigo releases. Over the last couple months Vertigo has had great success with launching titles such as: Survivor’s Club, The Clean Room, Twilight Children, Art Ops and UnFollow. Each of which bring something unique to the table, and would have received a 3.5 out of 5 long boxes rating or higher had I reviewed them. (Vertigo isn’t done either. There are a number of series that look very promising coming down the pipes just in the remainder of 2015 alone). I can’t promise a spot on my Pull List each month for every Vertigo title but they all so far have at least warranted picking up the first trade paperback when they come out (more on that in my end of the month blog post at the end of November). I guess you could say Vertigo is… on fire.
In Slash & Burn, Si Spencer, Max Dunbar, and crew keep up the Vertigo hot streak.
Readers are introduced to the main character Rosheen, a firefighter, self confessed “femme fatale”, and pyromaniac. Rosheen’s past, which readers get a brief glimpse of, will play out to be key in Rosheen’s character development and this series. Its interesting to see how Rosheen’s occupation and serious pyromaniac compulsions interact. On one hand Rosheen is addicted to fire, on the other hand, as she describes, she is forced to hurt the ones she loves, extinguishing those very fires which Spencer has crafted to take on character traits of their own.
The twist/cliffhanger at the end of this first issue shows that this series will contain deeper and darker story lines than readers might expect early in the book. With interesting well developed characters, strong dialogue (for the most part), great writing, solid art by Max Dunbar, and an interesting cliffhanger as the conclusion of this first issue, this comic is well worth adding to your long box. This is my first experience with both Si Spencer and Max Dunbar but they have presented what appears to be the makings of a very solid and entertaining series to the table.
Verdict: 4.0 out of 5 long boxes. This issue really was very good, and definitely on the verge of bumping up to a 4.5 out of 5. I’m very interested to see how this series develops.
In Slash & Burn, Si Spencer, Max Dunbar, and crew keep up the Vertigo hot streak.
Readers are introduced to the main character Rosheen, a firefighter, self confessed “femme fatale”, and pyromaniac. Rosheen’s past, which readers get a brief glimpse of, will play out to be key in Rosheen’s character development and this series. Its interesting to see how Rosheen’s occupation and serious pyromaniac compulsions interact. On one hand Rosheen is addicted to fire, on the other hand, as she describes, she is forced to hurt the ones she loves, extinguishing those very fires which Spencer has crafted to take on character traits of their own.
The twist/cliffhanger at the end of this first issue shows that this series will contain deeper and darker story lines than readers might expect early in the book. With interesting well developed characters, strong dialogue (for the most part), great writing, solid art by Max Dunbar, and an interesting cliffhanger as the conclusion of this first issue, this comic is well worth adding to your long box. This is my first experience with both Si Spencer and Max Dunbar but they have presented what appears to be the makings of a very solid and entertaining series to the table.
Verdict: 4.0 out of 5 long boxes. This issue really was very good, and definitely on the verge of bumping up to a 4.5 out of 5. I’m very interested to see how this series develops.