A new ongoing series from the creative team who brought you the hit TECH JACKET DIGITAL mini! Zack Thompson: community college drop out, lives with his parents... This is who protects us from what lies beyond our world?! But he’s also Tech Jacket, the self-styled “Galactic Guardian of Earth,” and when a big-ass space ship enters Earth’s orbit, Zack will face the greatest challenge of his life!
Preview
Review
See the Review Rating Overview page for more information on how I rate each comic
Cover & Solicit 4/5
The cover is by series artist Khary Randolf
(Justice League 2.0, Starborn, Fanboys vs. Zombies) and colored by Emilio Lopez
(Justice League 2.0, Batman Beyond 2.0, Static Shock). It's a decent cover and a fair representation of Randolf's interiors.
Art, Colors & Inking 5/5
This issue's art team is Khary Randolf on pencils and
+Dave McCaig (Northlander, American Vampire, Star Wars) on colors. I like Randolf's style it has that old school Image style, I guess what you would call American Manga. I'm a reader from the 90's and this is the style that resonates with me. McCaig also does an excellent job with colors, they a vibrant and just jump off the page.
Layout & Flow 4/5
I'll start off with saying I know nothing of Tech Jacket, nor Kirkman's Universe. I did skim thru Comicvine to get a small bearing but didn't read everything as I wanted to keep this review new reader biased. I also wanted to read the 3 issue mini-series before reviewing but in hindsight it's probably best I didn't. This issue unfortunately doesn't have any type of recap page, and that really hurts it's new readers. I feel those who didn't know of the original, or that there was a mini-series would like to know a little about the Tech Jacket and why this teenage boy has it. Other than that, the issue was easy to read. It did a decent job of introducing Zach and his dad. While it's not explained by either of them, a 3rd party (some organization that wasn't expounded on this issue but probably is mentioned in past issues) does explain his suit and him being a Galactic Guardian of Earth. As for art flow Randolf does an excellent job and the pacing from panel to panel is great.
Story 4/5
This issue is written by
+Joe Keatinge (Glory, Morbius: The Living Vampire, Hell Yeah). The issue stars off with a flashback of Zach and his dad talking about space and how it's so exciting before jumping to the present with Zach in his Tech Jacket defending earth from aliens. I find the next portion odd mainly due to a lack of prior knowledge on the characters but also from a social view standpoint. I don't understand why Zach's dad is helping him on their space station, and even more why he is trying to collect unemployment. I understand if they are not getting money from anyone so he still needs a job, but I think the part that bothered me is Keatinge's writing that it was OK that his dad didn't look for any jobs and could collect it without looking. With that out of the way we find ourselves getting a explanation of who Zach is by CEO of a satellite company Mr. Crowe who is also creating soldiers. This is one of the only new reader areas I found in the issue where some of Zach's past is explained. It seems he would like Zach to lead his army. In the final pages Keatinge outlines the first arc of the book with a threat already attacking Zach's girlfriend's planet and is now approching Earth.
Verdict - 4.3 (8.5/10) - (Buy Tech Jacket) SAVE 10%
I was really looking forward to this series after the
early preview from Image. I like the art style of Khary Randolf with Dave McCaig on colors. And Joe Keatinge on writing duties is almost flawless. I did have a lot of unanswered questions because they didn't provide any back-story or recap page for new readers. It's expected that readers would have read the original 8 issue series, the 3 issue mini-series or other comics like Invincible that have featured Tech Jacket. With that said I still think it was a great issue and I'm sure with time I'll learn more about the characters and the history behind Tech Jacket. If not I can always get the
TPB that was just release featuring issues 7 & 8 and the 3 issue mini-series. I'd highly recommend this to anyone who knows about Tech Jacket as it seems this series is going to be great, and for those who haven't read TJ go grab the TPB and give this issue a read.
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