Posted in: Comics, Review | Tagged: brandon thomas, comic book reviews, hardcore, skybound

REVIEW: Hardcore Reloaded #4 — "A Recipe For High Octane Excitement"

Published Thu, 19 Mar 2020 14:00:58 -0500

(Image Comics, creative team: Brandon Thomas, Francis Portela, Leonardo Paciarotti, Thomas Mauer)

The first thing you'll notice and likely love about this book is its crisp, detailed sense of spectacle. If you liked Juan Jose Ryp, the visuals presented by Portela, Paciarotti and Mauer will likely tickle your fancy. Then let's look at Brandon Thomas' action movie script, which combines Hobbes and Shaw extremism with thematic elements from the agents of The Matrix, with a dash of Q's tech from the James Bond films. That's a recipe for high octane excitement. It's a shame for all its sturm und drang the characters had so little room to distinguish themselves, especially with the comic's central conceit. See, there is a technology at play that lets parties "hijack" the bodies of other people remotely, meaning each character sometimes "acts" through people who look different. On camera, actors can study their counterparts and affect vocal inflections or physical idiosyncrasies to show the difference. In this lean page count with so much yelling and property damage going on, there's simply no panel time for that kind of nuance, which is this issue's solitary deficit. If you're here for thrills that would titillate Michael Bay, well, you're in the right place. If you'd like a little more nuance, well, this is a gorgeous date that's not much of a conversationalist but is more than ready to impress in other ways. RATING: HONORABLE MENTION.

HARDCORE: RELOADED #4 (OF 5)
WRITER: BRANDON THOMAS
ARTIST: FRANCIS PORTELA & LEONARDO PACIAROTTI
COVER: NIC KLEIN
The new President is under attack! In order to save him, Drake will have to go further than he ever has before and body-jack his most powerful host ever!