America’s Got Powers #1
Written by: Jonathan Ross
Art by: Bryan Hitch
Published by: Image Comics
Well this was unexpected!
I’ve been a long time fan of Jonathan Ross since his TV show started on the BBC. Religiously I’d sit down on a Friday night ad watch him chat with his guests and laugh because he’s hilarious and I thought this comic was going to be the same, a pretty funny book with Bryan hitch taking a step away from the action he’d been doing at marvel in exchange for something light-hearted and a poke at society’s obsession with reality TV -I was wrong!
Ross can write! He sets the scene quickly, builds up an interesting concept, relate-able characters (if a little clichéd) and allows his artist to tell as much of the story as he does with the art.
I was half-right though, this, like the recent movie adaptation ‘Hunger Games’, is a poke at reality TV and society’s morbid obsession with it (this ‘TV show’ actually has death and injury) and Ross plays with this and ‘Hollywood’s’ need to make it bigger, glitzier etc in order to get more ratings so Ross builds a huge stage, with giant stakes then nestles in this one seemingly ‘small’ character who is in the middle of it all.
Then there is the feast for the eyes art of Bryan Hitch. I loved Hitch’s art since Stormwatch and he brings it again here with inker Paul Neary showing fantastic thrilling action scenes set in beautiful scenery that enthrals! The series sis et in San Francisco and Hitch has a lot of play in how he lays stuff out and the tone is like that of the Super bowl or The ‘X Factor’ so Hitch excels at these huge wide-screen shots!
Hitch is also aware of the smaller details in his characters and in shots that often have an array of people, he provides each one with a little tweak in expression or a way of standing that lets you know you’re dealing with people. His art style looks set perfectly to what Ross is going to achieve and the scale that this series seems to be set at.
This is a great over-sized opening issue by Ross and Hitch and I’m interested to see where it goes, if you like your big scale action stories you’ll enjoy this series and whether you love or hate reality television you’ll get a kick out of the creators’ take on the concept.
Rating: 9/10
