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Meltdown #1
FIRST LOOK!
Posted 02 September 2006
Writer: David B. Schwartz
Artist: Sean Wang
Colors: Guru-eFX
Publisher: Image Comics
5.00 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed by Matt Rawson
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FIRST LOOK! (Read the First 7 Pages Below!)
Meltdown #1, due out in December 2006, is one hell of a good read. The
story is life-spanning but manages to zero in on the moments that move the
story along and avoid superfluous nonsense and clutter. This is quite
literally the life and death of a brand new superhero in two prestige
format books, a hero called The Flare — and he is burning himself to
a crisp.
Writer David B. Schwartz proves his chops quite nicely with Meltdown #1. I
opened my preview copy and was instantly pulled into this tragic hero’s
tale. The sympathy
goes out not to the hero, whom in the race against his
own mortality proves to be quite the opposite, but the person behind
the mask who is dying. That person is Caliente, named such because of a
medical condition he was born with that would later develop into his
heat-oriented superpowers — the powers that will eventually kill him.
It truly takes skill to do what Schwartz has done here, to sum up a
character’s entire history in one book and actually make you care that he
is about to die. This is primarily due to the fact that Cal seems real.
We are presented with the unglamorous side of being a super hero; how
this hero’s powers can save lives but at the same time destroy his own.
For the reader, the personal drama that Cal has to
endure is a hook that digs deep, then yanks.
The artwork is provided by the ever-talented Sean Wang, best
known for Tick and Arthur from New England Comics and his own
fantastically addictive space drama, Runners. In Meltdown Wang brings the same heat
that burned up the pages of Runners; Wang’s line-work and storytelling
is clean, clear, and meshes perfectly with the story. An architect by
education (from MIT, no less), Wang injects his cityscapes with such
design and spot-on perspective that he is the very antithesis of the “lazy artist.” Also, the covers are by Chris Bachalo and Greg
Horn, two names I’m sure you are familiar with already.
The bottom line is, on your next visit to your comic shop ask for Meltdown
#1 to be put on your pull list. Are you writing this down? Seriously,
request the hell out of this book. Meltdown #1 is going to catch fire in
December, and you won’t want to miss it!
Also, head on over to my feature on artist Sean Wang in Voices From
The Other Side to find out more on this great artist!
Without further ado, here are the first seven pages of Meltdown #1!
—CCdC—
Cover image used with permission of the publisher.
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