Revealing that the news was not fake.
Creative Staff:
Story: Tim Seeley
Art: Priscilla Petraites
Colors: Marco Lesko
Letterer: Marshall Dillon
What They Say:
Kennedy and superman-for-hire Jim Heller are pursued by FDA agents and salaried cy-borgs, in the underground world of black market medical technology! Another pulse-pounding adventure of anarchy and attitude!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The first two installments of Brilliant Trash were certainly a struggle and I’ve been through that a couple of times with Tim Seeley’s work. The payoff is usually there but it can be hard at the start of the series, even with a known property, to get into the rhythm of it. Things narrow down a bit here and that’s a huge help in making it a lot more accessible and it doesn’t hurt that Priscilla Petraites turns in another great looking installment. Her artwork is ideally suited for this kind of story where it’s all over the map in terms of design and what it can do so that we end up with really unusual characters that all feel firmly rooted in the same world. Not always an easy feat!
The two-track focus of this book also keeps things moving in an educational/information way that it really needed so that we can feel more grounded. The memory side story playing in Kennedy’s head of Zhen’s past is definitely interesting as she works through her experiments on rats to try and find the right kind of unlocked power to use to help elevate people to something more. Of course, there are darker things that can come from it and she harbors a lot of anger over a range of things. The key moment of all of this, beyond Kennedy learning it, is when at the conference she meets a young woman that she brings in to experiment on because of a painful disease that she has which might be curable. This give us our look at Lady Last Word before the took on the title and it affirms for Kennedy that events in the middle east were most assuredly not fake misinformation.
The present day aspect of it is decent but suffers from a less than clear narrative. Kennedy’s grappling with all of this and has the potential of just flat out losing it, to put it simply. Jim’s intent on getting her to California but he can’t fly her there as he’d burn up along the way from overusing his abilities. So they opt for a flight out but that’s not going to go well with the “FDA” cyborgs that are watching for people like them combined with Diane from the competition that’s looking to acquire Kennedy. It’s a nice bit of action but it’s still not a world that feels fully realized in a way where these disparate pieces feel cohesive within it. I did like the last couple of pages with the two on the ride they’ve hitched on as there’s some decent humor between them and a chance just for some quiet dialogue about what’s been going on as Kennedy’s realizing more of the truths of the world.
In Summary:
Brilliant Trash still doesn’t feel like it has a through-line that I could easily explain to someone as to why they should get into the book. I like aspects of it with the artwork and some of the creative choices as to the characters and their backstories in this strange little familiar world. But I can’t say it’s about something in particular to make it a quick and easy recommendation. It’s got a lot of potential as there are neat pieces to it that I’m hoping come together well. This issue gives me more hope that we’ll get there with it as it’s not as overstuffed with things that keep it from having a good narrative flow. I feel like I’ve got a better handled on Kennedy here and Jim to some degree but also some good flashback material for Zhen.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: January 17th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
