Category Zero #1

Category Zero #1 is another more realistic look at superheroes. This has been done a lot, but so have many other story tropes. The key will be if the creators can make this a truly original story and set it apart from everything else. It gets off to a pretty solid start; not the greatest #1 issue ever, but I will be on board for at least one more issue to see where it goes. The art is solid comic book art; I have my likes and dislikes, I would have really liked to have seen more background detail to really bring this world to life though. Overall Category Zero #1 is an interesting concept that we will have to wait and see if it fully blooms or dwindles away. Read Full Review

Valiant Son

Aug 16, 2019

It's okay. It does feel a little bit underwritten, however. Narration boxes and thought bubbles are much derided these days, but they can be used very effectively to build a world and a story. They would definitely have helped here. There is plenty about this world that could have been better developed, and I don't care about the characters because I have been given no reason to: they are not three dimensional. It is unclear whether Sarah, the female lecturer, or her daughter (who has no name) are dead at the end of the issue. If they are then they are nothing more than plot devices, and we have been cheated. Storywise, there is a potential waste in the opening scenes. If none of the characters from 20 years ago are returned to then the whole scene is wasteful. This could also have been better written with the female lecturer telling her story around this flashback, along with some other scenes of reactions to the outbreak. Kiamil needs to think more about story structure: at the moment, his approach is overwhelmingly linear. The art is fine, if rather perfunctory, but the colouring is really flat and boring. The issue would also have benefited from having more story pages to build the world and develop the characters, rather than devoting six pages to a preview of a different title; this is something that really annoys me in a comic with a cover price of $3.99! Why am I paying for the publisher's six page advert? There is enough to entice me to read the next issue, but more needs to be done from hereon to make this a world with characters who I care about. more