Creative Staff:
Story: Howard Shapiro
Art: Andres J. Mossa
Colors: Andres J. Mossa
Letterer: Andres J. Mossa
What They Say:
The highly anticipated sequel to the award-winning Hockey Saint and taking place ten years after “Saint” ends. The legendary Jeremiah “Jake” Jacobson, now thirty-two, has been the world’s best hockey player over his fourteen-year career because of his out of this world talent level and smart play. But he can’t stay on top forever, and when he makes a mistake on the ice, his career and family life start to crumble.
At the same time, Tom Leonard, his agent and best friend, is completely overwhelmed by a project he and Jake were supposed to be working on together. A project that could have a huge impact on the people through their city in need of a helping hand. As Jake sinks deeper into a funk over his lost status due to his deteriorating play and the emergence of teammate and rookie phenom Barclay Pederson, Tom realizes he’s on his own. At the same time he rediscovers someone from his past who he never thought he’d see again. In that burgeoning relationship, Tom discovers the importance of taking chances and starts to believe in himself. Can Jake break out of his downward spiral and can Tom finally find the courage to step out of Jake’s shadow?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
One of the few inevitable gifts life has in store for us is growing old; bones become brittle, soreness kicks in much faster than it used to, and sometimes our energy reservoirs may not be as deep as we remember. Nobody on this planet feels the effects of age like a professional athlete, and this is where Howard Shapiro’s Hockey Karma take us. Jeremiah Jacobson, the best hockey player in the world for the last 14 years has hit this cliff, the seemingly mystical time in a professional athlete’s life when their performance starts to decline. More often than not this decline is the exact opposite of delicate, and Jake is no exception here. His performance on the ice tanks, lingering injuries nag him with increasing frequency, and the new rookie sensation Barclay Pederson is quickly stealing his spotlight.
Naturally, the physical decline in age can also be detrimental to psychological health, which author Howard Shapiro shows us time and again through this graphic novel. In Jake’s vain attempts to stay on top, he alienates his coach, his agent and best friend Tom, and even his own wife and daughter. Professional athletes such as Jake can be notoriously self-centered, a trait that’s almost necessary to reach the level of success Jake is attributed with; but now in his old age, it’s working against him. Jake’s crumbling relationship with both his agent and family is the consequence of this lifestyle, and the stress takes its toll on him. Andre Mossa’s art-style feels like it’s at its peak here, with many close shots on Jake’s stress-ridden roadmap of a face ending chapters on a sour tone. The art in general throughout this novel is satisfactory; I enjoyed the shading of the characters in particular, I was reminded of Archer in a way while flipping through the pages. The only factor I didn’t quite enjoy was the occasional lack of spatial awareness by the artist, characters would alternate between sitting and standing in a room but I would struggle to figure out exactly where in said room as the layout wasn’t explained very successfully.
To make matters worse, Jake doesn’t have the privilege of riding into the proverbial sunset of hockey history. Much to Jake’s chagrin, a shining new rookie is here to lead his team, the Blades, to victory. For those not in tune with professional sports, this is par for the course; players need to fight tooth and nail for their jobs and share of the spotlight. For a player like Jake this concept is supremely difficult to wrestle with, he is no longer the head honcho around the locker room let alone the league. Rather than being a teammate, rookie sensation Barclay Pederson is now the enemy. Team success has now taken a back seat to personal glory for Jake, a mindset he pays dearly for. Jake’s body, and his family, is on the brink of ruination, and only he can save it all.
Jaelithe, an old crush from Tom’s high school days, makes a reappearance and the two begin dating almost immediately. Jaelithe brings with her a retrospective look back at Tom’s life after graduation, an era he had all but forgotten about in the whirlwind of Jake’s professional career. This budding romance ignites a spark in Tom to find himself amongst the growing pile of rubble that is Jake’s career and take a risk on this new (old) persona. Knowing that Jake may not be out of the frying pan for a while, Tom takes a few bold steps forward, for not just the community he is trying to save, but also for himself.
As I kept reading, I was growing more and more curious as to what would haul Jake out of this pit he dug, and I was honestly slightly disappointed with the resolution. All of the perils and pitfalls in Jake’s story so far can end in so many unfortunate ways it would make your head spin, but Jake luckily dodges any sort of negative outcome here. How the conclusion plays out is eventually Jake takes it upon himself to find help and sees a therapist as the first step to solve his many issues both on and off the rink. We are shown this treatment in a set of panels that feels about as close to a statically drawn montage as we can get. Jake eventually sees a therapist, makes amends with the rookie Pederson, wins a championship as a backseat player, kicks his addiction to prescription painkillers, mends his familial relationship, AND collaborates with Tom to get their community service foundation off the ground. This felt like an awfully quick and cheap way to tie up every single knot in the plot of this graphic novel, and it sold the gravity of the story a little short given the trappings of Jake’s predicament. When all is said and done, Jake manages to rescue his life from the shambles it was risking to usher in a Disney-esque ending that steals from the realism the novel had established previously.
In Summary:
Faced with the undefeated opponent known as age, ice hockey superstar Jeremiah “Jake” Jacobson must find a way to come to grips with his fading stardom not only for himself but for his friends and family as well. Tackling obstacles such as persistent injuries, the demon known as youth, and a crumbling family life; Jake struggles to sort out his priorities and figure out exactly what his legacy will be, both on and off the rink. This graphic novel has the versatility to be a good read not just for sports fans (the on-rink action here is actually relatively sparse) but for anyone who craves a good story about overcoming age, self-growth, and determination. I thoroughly enjoyed this graphic novel and would most definitely recommend giving both Hockey Karma and Shapiro’s previous work Hockey Saint a read.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: Animal Media Group
Release Date: November 1st, 2016
MSRP: $14.95
