Secret Weapons #1 Review

 

Cause You Got Strange Powers

Writer: Eric Heisserer
Artists: Raul Allen, Patricia Martin
Letterer: Patricia Martin
Cover Artist: Raul Allen
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: June 28, 2017

Review by: Ryan Douglas

Secret Weapons has been on my radar for awhile now. When the news was released Arrival screenwriter was joining Valiant, I was pretty jazzed. Arrival was one of my favorite films of last year, which spiked my hype around this book even more. This should be a great jumping on point, introducing new characters and a new story in the Valiant mythos. The train is leaving folks, let’s get into it.

There’s a secret organization looking to collect these select few runaway psiot’s we meet throughout the issue. The organization seem to have their own predator like psiot, Rex-O to track them. We see a taste of what Rex-O is capable of before it goes off on her mission. Livewire during this is there to give us an emotional backstory on how our new characters arrived on the scene. With several intriguing introduction scenes to the characters and grasp of each of their own very, very unique abilities. The psiot hunter makes contact and the chase begins. Overpowered by the villainous psiot and close to being decapitated, they're able to get away with the help of Livewire. Our issue ends where two of our characters Nicole and Owen are lead to an abandoned building, where Livewire is waiting to properly introduce herself and begin to build the foundation of the Secret Weapons team.  

This was an enjoyable read and did everything a first issue should do. Each character introduction was natural and shows the reader these aren’t your god-like beings who you would take to fight a war. These characters remind you if special abilities were a real thing, they wouldn’t be as cool as you may think. Some people may easily be able to compare them to Inhumans. But their emotional backstory is what separates them from superheroes you’re familiar with. That’s where Eric Heisserer shows his talents of getting the reader attached to the characters we’ll be following. The issue had a great overall flow to get everyone on board. My only nitpick, at points during the action scenes, the dialogue felt unnatural and felt out of place from the rest of the issue. I have no gripes with the artwork here, it enhances my enjoyment of the issue. Overall, great start to kick off the mini-series and I’m excited to ride this out.  

Bits and Pieces: 

A solid introduction to the mini-series and shows the story has a lot of potential. Perfect collaboration of storytelling and brilliant artwork. 

8.0/10