S.H.O.O.T. First #1

by Justin Aclin, Nicolas Daniel Selma & Marlac

S.H.O.O.T. First is a new series from Dark Horse that’s about a special group of monster hunters. S.H.O.O.T. stands for Secular Humanist Occult Obliteration Taskforce who battle “outside actors” which can take the form of things like yetis, angels, demons and in the issue Jinn. These outside actors feed off of humanity’s blind faith, which makes them stronger and more powerful, so they usually prey off religions the most.

This first issue does a great job of introducing not only most of the members of S.H.O.O.T. and their fellow subdivision S.H.A.R.D. (Secular Humanist Applications Research and Development) but also setting up the overall basics of this story. This issue centers a bit around a new member being brought into S.H.O.O.T. after helping on a mission and showing that posses a great deal of doubt which is vital to using their weapons to destroy the outside actors. The more doubt you possess the more powerful your weapons are and it seems this new character that prefers to be called Infidel, possess an incredible amount of doubt which is why they decided to recruit him. A lot happens in this one issue that this series hits the ground running.

The art really compliments the series, it stays decently grounded but when it comes to designing S.H.O.O.T.’s weapons of the look of the other actors, like the Jinn in this issue, they look great and don’t seem out of place. Our team of good guys eve has a robot named Robot who looks simple but fits into this group perfectly. This is a grand example of the writing and the art both complimenting each other and that helps make this series stand out.

S.H.O.O.T. First was an outstanding first issue that sets up the series and is a fun read to boot. There are plenty of characters to like and they did a great job of introducing quite a few in just one issue without making it feel cluttered or losing the reader in all the information. For being a series by relatively unknown creators, it came as quite a shock at how fun this issue is. This will be a series to keep your eye on cause it looks good right now and can really go anywhere from here.