Ayre Force (Graphic Novel) – Review

By Adam Slutsky and Joseph Phillip Illidge (Writers), Shawn Martinbrough (Artist), and Andrew Dalhouse and Felix Serrano (Colors)

Ayre Force is a unique piece of fiction as the characters are all based on real life professionals from Bodog, an international entertainment company. In this graphic novel, we learn the story of their fictional secret life as agents of “Ayre Force,” Bodog founder Calvin Ayre’s strike team to combat the fictional evil corporation WinterCorp. This book is pure action from cover to cover as these elite agents soon come face to face with the genetically altered children of Janus Winter, owner of WinterCorp.

The book starts out with the makings of a summer action movie, but the introduction of these characters quickly brings in a super-villain element that provides for an interesting “hybrid-genre” story. Imagine if a bunch of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents from Marvel suddenly had to face a threesome of baddies by themselves, all while trying to stop extreme animal cruelty acts of a foreign company, and you’d get rough idea of what this story’s about. Perhaps one thing that I loved about the villains was that the idea behind them instantly reminded me of H.G. Well’s The Island of Doctor Moreau. Being a huge Wells fan myself, writers Adam Slutsky and Joseph Illidge instantly get my admiration for this homage to Dr. Moreau, intentional or not. Shawn Martinbrough’s art brings this high-adrenaline story to life. It can be really easy to make large amounts of action, explosions, and shooting confusing and muddled, but his work is not only clear throughout, but largely contributes to what makes this book so good.

This graphic novel isn’t without its flaws. There are a few instances where who is narrating isn’t made apparent until a few pages later. This forces the reader to turn back a bit to get the full meaning. Also, it appears that someone forgot to turn the sound effects on, as they are absent in the first several pages. The most annoying part is that with such a large cast of good guys introduced so quickly, it’s easy to get characters mixed up in parts, but the characterization that is there is strong. In fact, it might actually help if you read the supplemental material at the end of the book first so you can get a better idea of who is who. Still, these flaws seem minor when compared to sheer fun associated with this book. With all of the action, story, amazing art, and real-world influences, I have just one question: When are we getting a sequel?

Aside from the high action and great story, perhaps the best part of this graphic novel is knowing that all proceeds are going to fighting the real world evils portrayed in this book – mostly helping to fight bear-bile farming in Asia. For those interested, general and purchasing information can be found Ayre Force’s website: http://ayreforce.bodoglife.com/ (Grade: A-)

-M. Staples