Posted in: Comics | Tagged: any one of us, indie Comics, indie comics spotlight, killian mckellan, nikita valischuk, superheroes

Indie Comic Spotlight Review: Any One of Us #1 and #2- Brutal Goddess of Vengeance

A masked, armored vigilante roams these streets. She targets the worst of the worst. We see her taking down men running a sweatshop full of children. We see her killing armed thugs and murderers. We see her interrogating a man who burned a woman to death. We are also given glimpses of her worst moments and her brutal origins. We only know her by one name: Adrestia.

This comic is something of a mixed bag. The closest thing that comes to mind for comparison is the original The Crow graphic novel by James O'Barr. This is due to its monochrome color scale that relies heavily on shadow, the brutal violence, and the poetic thought captions which often quote literature.

I quite enjoy The Crow by O'Barr. I can understand the criticisms; it comes of as quite melodramatic. It does hold a soft spot for its place in my teenage years, but I do think it holds up as a genuinely good piece graphic novel.

Unlike The Crow, Adrestia is not out to avenge one specific crime but any that victimizes the innocent. From the first two issues, we are given the impression that she hunts down the most ruthless and vile.

The aforementioned poetic thought narration has its ups-and-downs in itself. While they can punctuate a scene in a pleasing manner, they do often come off as melodramatic themselves. They are reminiscent of noir fiction which are also often primarily told in winding thought narrations that often use elaborate metaphors. It doesn't always work though, and it's not hard to get wrong and descend into gibberish. Even this can be intentional, like Rorschach from Watchmen, but here, it sometimes comes off as Batman's less poetic moments.

Personality is something more present in the story than Adrestia herself. For better or for worse, she very much plays the whole "I am vengeance, I am the night" bit for the duration of the story. She's clearly unhinged to a degree, and she greatly enjoys the brutality she doles out.

That brutality leads to another complication. While the people Adrestia deals with are awful, awful people, we see her due some excruciating things in response and then go on about how much joy she takes from it. While I like the Punisher, if Frank Castle often spoke of how much he loves his self-appointed job, it may color how I view the character.

I must confess, I'm quite torn on this part. It's not that people she kills don't deserve it (well, depending on your philosophical leanings on such things); child slavers are pretty close to the bottom, if they aren't how we measure the bottom themselves. However, Adrestia just comes off as a brutal sadist. Some layering and complexity would go a long way to justifying her ethos and making her more likable.

We are also shown some harrowing scenes which would justifiably turn anyone off from reading this comic. The child slaves are visibly starved, we see them beaten, and there is a rape scene in the second issue.

The art by Nikita Vasilchuk is quite good. The shadowing and heavy inking makes the scenes quite intense. Color is added in small creative ways; blows and cuts are covered in red. A bruise is shown in deep purple. Kinetic energy and motion is represented well. The fight scenes can get a little confusing though; this is due to the lack of finer detailing in some of the panels. Overall, I mostly enjoyed it.

Any One of Us is a fascinating comic. It makes you question to which point you're willing to accept extreme brutality in your protagonists. Despite the fact that Adrestia (which is another name for the Greek goddess Nemesis, by the way) can come off as a little flat and overly sadistic, I can't say that I didn't enjoy the comic. There is some schadenfreude to be taken from watching awful scumbags being brutalized by an armored angel of death. However, if you're squeamish on gore and violence, it is not one I'd recommend tackling. I have mixed feelings on the finished product, but I still have to recommend it to anyone who feels up to the brutality. The comic certainly makes you think.

Currently, there is no wider means of purchasing Any One of Us. The creative team should have a website up at the end of February, and they will be launching a Kickstarter for wider distribution soon.

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