An interesting new path is revealed.
Creative Staff:
Story: Christopher Sebela
Art: Hayden Sherman
Colors: Hayden Sherman
Letters: Hayden Sherman
What They Say:
With no safe havens left, the splintered sides of the surviving Cryonauts are spinning wildly out of control. On the ground, the least useful members of their ranks — lovesick couple Tikk and Sath — have stepped up to save their fellow soldiers. While deep behind the scenes, LQ’s semi-suicide mission to uncover who’s pulling the strings has hit bloody paydirt.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Cold War series has definitely been a whole lot of fun as its filled with craziness and bloodshed. Sebela has the big plan here that we’re getting slivers of while at the same time being taught to distrust what we see because of all the manipulations that have gone on and the passage of time. What really accentuates all of that and adds an immense amount of tension and anxiety is what Hayden Sherman does with it. It’s so big and crazy, so intense and all over the place in a wonderful way, that it’s the rare series that really brings all of it together in a way that feels real. I get tense reading it because of all the line work, colors, and the intensity of it all.
The arrival of Tikk and Sath in the story, something that our Granny character points out haven’t been around to her knowledge, definitely changes things. As is the nature of this series, we get some good flashback material for them as they tell their tale together (but with separate narration) while a third person comes in later as well. These two were lost souls in their lives that ended up in the LCD church over time and found each other and an amazing love as well. The church is one that they really were a good fit for as they were able to draw people into it well but we also discover that the church was focused on the future and prophecies of it, working to set the right people on mission to be able to be frozen and put into play in this distant period where they could execute the real mission.
What makes it amusing in a way is that both Tikk and Sath are just so madly in love that they’re re-experiencing it through the helmet with the seeing of their memories and then deleting them so that they go through it again. Running all of this alongside them walking the group under their protective red shield, while nobody else really understands them and what they’re doing, makes for some great moments. The reveal some of what they know about the various “enemies” that really aren’t but also their bigger plan to go beyond all of this – if there is a place there. The tension with everyone else is definitely solid as they feel even less in control than before and it’s all set up to make us empathize with the opponents a bit as they’re just as screwed up if not more with what’s going on.
In Summary:
Cold War continues to delight as it has this really great energy about it and has me viewing it in a theatrical kind of way. They’d never be able to replicate what Hayden Sherman does here visually but the energy he brings to it, the craziness of design, just has it feeling like this really huge piece that would be ideal there. Sebela’s story is delivering us some great character pieces that has me wondering what twist or hook may be coming next as there’s so much going on. This one expands things even more and I can’t wait to see what’s next and to eventually re-read the whole thing in one crazy sitting.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: May 16th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
