“No One”
Creative Staff:
Story: Erica Schultz & Van Jensen
Art: Aneke
Letterer: Cardinal Rae
What They Say:
Who is the Hidden King? And why did he want Denzin dead? Satya needs to unravel this mystery – and fast. She has an assassin hot on her tail, and she’s been beaten to a pulp by the cops. To make matters worse, the client who hired her onto the case now wants her fired. But you can’t keep a good detective down! Unfortunately for Satya, things are about to go from bad to worse to really %&#@ing terrible.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Erica Schultz and Van Jensen delivered an intriguing if somewhat complicated opening installment for this series that definitely got you hooked if you put in the effort to it. The pair have put together a near-future piece that leans a lot into the present and extrapolates it in a way that may frustrate some that are looking for escapism, but it takes an interesting approach to it. With a lot of the setup out of the way, the latest installment builds from there, and having the talented Aneke illustrate and color it definitely gives it a wonderful distinctiveness about it. I don’t get to see their work as often as I’d like but whenever I do it’s definitely the take-notice kind of work and this is no exception. I love the character designs, some of the ways the pages are laid out, and the whole color design is just fantastic.
The opening to this issue was very frustrating from a reviewer’s perspective as the provided materials can’t be rotated and it’s all done horizontally, so it is just unreadable. Since it’s a Dick Tracy-style dream that Satya is having, you can figure out the fears easily enough and shift into her coming back to consciousness. This is like going into another nightmare, however, as her mother is there and Tom has revealed everything. It does set her on the path to being truthful with her mother, and realizing that her mother does understand some of this stuff, but it only gets worse when her client “of sorts” shows up and gets pretty upset when he finds out that she’s been hurt. The reality though is that she still needs him and his floating cameras to take down Wilkes and is willing to go the distance, once she does some more research.
But she does see Denzin’s daughter Istina first to let her know that she’s closing in on it, though Istina isn’t keen on her being hurt. The dialogue between the two actually takes her back to how Denzin became her editor and mentor and it helps to calm and focus her in the present remembering the things he taught her. Which is good as she ends up basically breaking into Wilke’s place in order to get her hands on his laptop where all the real secrets are. But this all just feels like a huge setup in general since her secretive attacker has returned again, this time using his suit to take on her presence and kill Wilkes so the cameras record it. Thankfully, which is a surprise to her, the cops there are the ones she knows and even they’re blown away by what they’re seeing and believe her completely. Not that it matters much as the camera is a hard bit of proof to change when it’s in the public sphere.
In Summary:
With the next issue being the concluding chapter, I do like that this isn’t stretched out further than it should be or made needlessly complicated. The focus is tight and I like what we get here with Satya’s background that better cements why she’s going the distance for Denzin. It’s also welcome to see Istina fleshed out a bit more and humanized after our previous time with her. The action is fun to watch here and Satya’s personality is a lot of fun to watch play out as she deals with everyone. It’s a solid script with some good-looking artwork that makes it a fun and enjoyable read overall once more.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: March 16th, 2022
MSRP: $4.99
