Posted in: Comics | Tagged: gabriel ibarra nunez, gravelands, kaiju, massimo rossi, scout comics, superheroes

Graveland #1 Review: Kaiju Versus Super Soldiers

An earthquake opens a fissure in the middle of San Francisco. This delivers a number of giants that begin ravaging the city. Without any other options, the government unleashes a number of super soldiers to meet the giant threat.

Graveland immediately comes off like an English version of Attack on Titan. Of course, the same thing could be said of Pacific Rim.

Now, that's not inherently a bad thing of course. Hell, I love Pacific Rim, and I enjoy Graveland #1 quite a bit from the outset.

Superhumans fighting giant monsters? That's a fusion of my two favorite genres: superheroes fiction and kaiju stories.

The first few pages are quite impressive in the realm of sequential fiction as well. There is no text, but you can find out what's happening fairly quickly.

This is, incidentally, a good thing for a number of reasons. It's an impressive bit of showing instead of telling, but it also mitigates the dialogue, which can get a bit spotty at times. This isn't the case all of the time; however, it gets a bit dire here and there.

There are some plot points that feel unacknowledged. The people in charge of the superhumans have taken these people off the streets, and no one ever brings it up after the revelation. Not even the super soldiers give pushback over being used as lab rats. In fact, the team collaborate like a unit.

The art is stylistically impressive, but it does have its issues. Gabriel Ibarra Nunez's art style is quite appealing, and it is reminiscent of Andrea Sorrentino's work, who is a very talented artist. However, it does obfuscate some things. There are some scenes wherein the narrative is lost, especially the action-heavy sequences. Hell, I wasn't even 100% sure that an earthquake unleashed the giants until later in the comic. The giants themselves have a cool and unique design. Plus, Nunez's color work is visually interesting in its own right, and the overall comic does look good.

Graveland #1 is a cool and fun read. Giants battling super soldiers is a cool setup, and I look forward to where this story can go. I recommend this one. Give it a read.

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