Electric Warriors #1 Review

Rating: 7 out of 8

Writer: Steve Orlando

Artist: Travel Foreman

Note: This review was done shortly after release. I hope to read the following issues soon as I can.

Electric Warriors #1

Jack Kirby was a visionary. I wouldn’t ascribe that word to everyone, but he’s a writer and artist who truly earned it. To this day, many of his creations and co-creations continue to be used through both Marvel and DC, including Mr Miracle, notably having his own comic by Tom King; Darkseid, popping up in Justice League Odyssey under Joshua Williamson, and many more.

It’s not solely his characters that continue to be used, but also his settings, namely the Great Disaster. This setting was the backdrop for another Kirby creation, Kamandi, Last Boy on Earth. In it, the world became ruled by intelligent, highly evolved animals, while humans dropped to the bottom rung of the power rung. Many devolved into a primal state humans hadn’t been in for many years.

Here, it’s a very similar situation, except humans have a bit more potential than they previously did, with some, even one of the Octopus Tribe, fighting for human rights. There’s an interesting conflict between two human brothers this issue, the outspoken Ian Navarro and Oscar Navarro, who’s been chosen as one of Earth’s heroes to join the group Electric Warriors.

Their mother wants Ian to recognize his brother as hero and, if not, to at least wear the Seal of Freedom to support him and humanity. All Ian really wants is for his brother to survive and given the death he’d seen an Electric Warrior suffer on black market footage, you can see why he’d be worried about his brother. Aside from Ian, the issue also focuses on Kana of the aforementioned Octopus Tribe.

So far, Kana seems a bit calmer, more contemplative comparatively. She seems to be lacking pupils from what I can see, but has a fair few tendrils at the end of her body. Kana has a purple face and gains an interesting new look later on, as does Earth’s other chosen Electric Warrior. Underwater, the art seems to have an otherworldly feel to it, almost like when someone’s eyes just haven’t adjusted. Above ground, it has more of a sketchy style, though nicely polished. One of the coolest little nods to the larger DC is what looks like Joker’s smiling fish from Batman The Animated Series.

Overall, a fairly enjoyable and very, very good 1^st issue, which I definitely recommend. As someone who isn’t really familiar with the Great Disaster, I understood this very easily and look forward to future issues, especially to see that ending followed up, which really excited me.