Blaze Brothers #1

By Vernon Whitlock III, Matthew Scott Krentz, Marat Mychaels, Deitrich Smith, Doug Sirois

“And that’s what you call professional?”

“I said please didn’t I?”

Blaze Brothers #1 by Vernon Whitlock III and Matthew Scott Krentz focuses on two brothers out for blood. It opens up with them in confession, trying to receive forgiveness for the kills they’re about to commit. A scene like this does pretty well to set the tone for the rest of the story.

Whitlock and Krentz have created a team consisting of two brothers with crazy martial arts skills as well as what seems to be extensive gun training. They have an arsenal at their disposal and within this one issue they do well to make good use of it. The dynamic between the two brothers adds to the story a bit too, with Billy being the more irrational of the two – and trying to smoke in their new car! (smoking in the car creates a humorous scene between the two brothers).

A great scene features Jack and Billy walking into their latest job. A secretary sits behind a counter and asks their business. Once they reveal who they are she pulls a gun from behind the counter and jumps into a blaze of ammo (get it? “blaze” of ammo? Nevermind…) Her panel is filled with the spray of bullets as artists Marat Mychaels and Deitrich Smith portray her scrunched face in a battle cry. The panel is colored with bright yellows by Doug Sirois as the shots fly from her machine guns. The panel right below it shows Jack and Billy leaning to the side to dodge the bullets, with each firing off a shot and hitting her in the forehead on the very last panel of the page.

If you’re looking for an action filled read then you will definitely find what you’re looking for in Blaze Brothers. Sword play, gun shots going off, and intense action sequences keep things lively, all while Whitlock and Krentz keep the story rolling.