From Aspen Comics, Vince Hernandez, Oliver Nome, John Starr, Josh Reed.

Fathom: Kiani #0 Review.

http://teamhellions.com/2012/03/02/fathom-kiani-0-advanced-review-from-aspen-comics/

Fathom: Kiani #1 Review.

http://teamhellions.com/2012/04/13/fathom-kiani-volume-2-1-review/

Two (well technically three) issues into this series and what more can I say?  The writing is still wonderful.  The art gets better and better with each issue.  The further this tale unfolds the more rounded the characters become.  The world becomes larger.  And this is where casual readers will become obsessed.  With knowledge that there is a larger world, there must also be the knowledge that yours is not the only (nor correct) point of view.  Yet it is yours, and you must be true to it.  In the same way Saba, Thalassar, and for damn sure Kiani all have their own reasons for every single action, which are right for themselves.

Vince Hernandez has gone as far back as Paradise Lost.  He then took comic book influences like Doctor Doom, Magneto and Marvel’s Civil War and said to himself, I can do this right.  Hernandez isn’t moving pieces around without thought.  Each decision, every motivation rings true for that character.  It is how great antagonists (I don’t want to say villains, and thus the broader word) should always be written.  The reader can agree with them either entirely, or up until the tipping point.

Although it is hard to argue anything against a force like Kiani.  The strength, the speed, and the weaponry.  I don’t care how good DC Comics’ New 52 Aquaman is.  I don’t care that Namor is in the X-Men now and a part of the huge AVX thing.  Kiani is the best water associated character in comics today.  Never once has she been lame.  No one needs to cut off her hand.  Or to retcon her as “the first mutant”.  She died and came back stronger than ever.  Not only is she an underwater based character, which often gets crapped on by fans.  She is also a SHE!  That died and came back!  Better!  Wasp is still dead and Oracle was in a wheelchair for nearly 30 years.  Don’t let the outfit (which makes sense for the character and within the world) fool you.  Kiani is all about portraying women as strong.

Speaking of that world, each and every time I read and re-read this book I discover more detail.  The inks and colors create a great sense of depth and to my own fault I concentrate on the foreground.  When on the second or third reading though, the backgrounds come to life.  The technology, the architecture, every nuance is strange and yet makes sense at the same time.  It is a Jack Kirby level of drawing the fantastic and the alien yet every piece, every bit of it, looks like it “works”.

An enjoyable comic book reading experience and nothing but huge recommendations for this book.