Formation Seven
Reviewed by David O' Leary
FORMATION SEVEN
Cover Date: 2010
Story by: Robert Curley
Art by: Gary Gowran
Cover by: Gary Gowran
Publisher: Atomic Diner
Cover Price: FREE
Reviewed By: David O' Leary
Released at this years Free Irish Comic Book Day comes a new title from Ireland's premier comic publishing house Atomic Diner. The brain child of Robert Curley, the man responsible for the careers of Declan Shalvey, Steven Mooney, Steven Thompson and Will Sliney among others is a new title based in mid 1980's Los Angeles.
This book is a preview book of the actual title which is upcoming at a later date and is the first published work of Gary Gowran from a new script from Freakshow scribe Curley.
The story opens with a man code named Lockdown. Matt Hopper is a government agent with an unwavering loyalty to the American government, a man who does as he is told. Although he will do what is asked he still asks questions sometimes as to the reasons why. He is musing this point while pointing a long range rifle at an unknown target. The next several pages contain a quick introduction of the various members of Formation Seven. From Matt being a washout with morals in an industry that does not require it being recruited to Jane a woman trapped in the body of a living doll who does some unspeakable things with members of the clergy to get information to Jumbo Girl and Pirouette two women, one very large and one very small who use violent gymnastics as part of their crime fighting to a toy tinkerer cum genius named David.
The group then gets hired to protect a member of the Russian government who is visiting the US. There is information available that this dignitary is a KGB operative and seeing as the story is set in a time before communism fell there is an air of the incredulous about the mission among the group. The reasoning being given is that a foreign dignitary being killed on foreign soil would be an awkward situation to explain away.
A point near the convoy is being monitored by the group when the assassination attempt takes place. All the group bar Jane who is monitoring the situation remotely and Matt who freezes while he contemplates the whole point of saving this guy spring into action and take down the majority of the assassins. After a good dressing down from base Lockdown takes the shot from a roof top over the convoy and kills the last remaining assassin realizing that he is a soldier and thinking for him-self is not part of the deal.
There is huge room for expansion here. The setting is reminiscent of the first Lethal Weapon movie which makes it nostalgic to a degree. The character of Matt is the obvious protagonist draw and expanding on his background and moral dilemma should be a focus in the future when the book launches proper. The whole idea of collapsing communism is another strong story point that looks like it could make interesting idea. All in all a huge amount of potential is present and Curley has a strong record of expanding stories and getting books out on a semi regular basis sp the future is bright.
Gowran is a newbie to the business and this is his first published work as I mentioned earlier. Presented in black and white, his work is raw and will tighten up over time. I don't want to focus too much on it actually as the only person who can make any difference on the look of the book is Gowran himself. Wholly commendable first effort though but if the book is intended to look as kinetic as Freakshow Gowran needs to buckle down and work hard to meet a very high standard set by some of the fastest rising artists working in the US today.
I don't know of the release date of the first issue proper but I will follow the series as there was enough present in the preview book that I want to come back.
Rating the Issue
| Story Story: Overall 7 Concept - 7 out of 10 Plot - 7 out of 10 Dialogue - 7 out of 10 |
Art |
Importance |
Reviewer Bio
David has been with CR since June 2008 and started out as a reviewer and has expanded to do a couple of columns for the site also; starting with 28 Words Later with artist Declan Shalvey and later 5 Minutes With... where he talks with the industries best and brightest from Kubert to Moore.
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