No Hero #5 – Review

By Warren Ellis (Writer), Juan Jose Ryp (Art), and Digikore Studios (Colors)

Some Thoughts Before The Review: I really like what Warren Ellis and Juan Jose Ryp are doing with No Hero. While the concept of a superhuman drug is nothing new, the story still manages to feel surprisingly fresh. And that’s all thanks to Ellis’ touch for taking into consideration the real world implications of something like (super drug) FX7 and Ryp’s incredibly brutal visuals.

The Story: With the media in a frenzy following the unexpected events that occurred at the press conference featured last issue, Carrick takes some advice and allows Revere to go out for a walk that doubles as public relations damage control. As it turns out, the walk offers Josh his first chance to be a hero. Welcome to The Front Line Revere…

What’s Good: The most impressive thing about No Hero #5 is how naturally it progresses Josh’s (A.K.A Revere) story. Warren Ellis does a great job of revealing both sides of the Front Line coin (public/private) through the events that conclude Josh’s transition from street vigilante to public hero. It makes for an extremely compelling read. A read that is also quite awesome to look at thanks to the impressive artwork provided by Juan Jose Ryp and Digikore studios. It successfully straddles the line between realism and a more traditional comic book style. It makes the action and gore (I dig the hallucinations) feel disturbingly grounded, yet appropriately stylized.

What’s Not So Good: For as much as I’ve enjoyed No Hero’s opening arc, the slow burn storytelling continues to be a tiny bit irritating. Five issues in and the story is still in an “introduce the characters” phase. Interesting characters though they may be, I had hoped some sort of bigger plot would have emerged by this point. Having The Front Line targeted for the past is a premise I can get behind; Ellis just hasn’t done enough with it yet.

Conclusion: No Hero is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. I just hope that sooner than later, more is done to really solidify the plot that is emerging.

Grade: B

-Kyle Posluszny

No Hero #3 – Review

By Warren Ellis (writer), Juan Jose Ryp (artist)

The Story: Vigilante Josh Carver really, really wants to be a superhuman.  So much in fact, that he is willing to ingest drugs without question and endure a hallucinogenic nightmare that would make Dante’s Inferno seem like a picnic in the park.  He may have picked a bad time to realize his dreams though, because there is somebody out there who knows exactly what the members of the Front Line have become.

The Good: Juan Jose Ryp is Ellis’s secret weapon, bringing his stories for Avatar to life with art that is both detailed and dynamic.  You only need to admire Ryp’s four, double-page spreads in this issue to see what I mean.  His style is reminiscent of Geoff Darrow’s, but deliberately holds back from that manic level of detail and intricacy to better convey the action Ellis’ stories often call for.  I have been watching Ryp pencil Ellis’ stories ever since Angel Stomp Future in 2005, and I have been delighted to see his style flourish and improve since then.  It won’t be long before the Big Two come to court his talents, and I can’t wait to see him break into the mainstream.

The Not So Good: The tagline to this series asks “how much do you want to be a superhuman?” However it has failed to answer the question in a meaningful way.  This issue was actually the first time I could recall Ellis even attempting to address the theme, and that’s unlike him.  This brings up a larger problem I’m having with this series: it’s utterly failing to get to the point.  It’s not quite a meditation on the price of being more than human, and not yet a murder mystery.  It’s getting there, but my god, we’re halfway through the arc now and he’s barely discussed the ideas that he built this story around, and that’s unacceptable for a writer of Ellis’s caliber.

Conclusion: I’m quickly losing interest in this series, but Ryp’s art is truly a thing to be admired.  If Ellis has a point to make, even if that point is simply to entertain the reader, I wish he’d get to it already.

Grade: C-

-Tony Rakittke