By Joe Casey, Nathan Fox, Jim Rugg, Ulises Farinas & Brad Simpson
Like Catalyst Comix before it, Captain Victory is a juggernaut of artistic talent. Fox, Rugg and Farinas are all heavy hitters in their own right and for the three to cohesively come together on one comic is a gift to all readers. Fox carries the vast load of issue one’s pages. Fox’s unique style is as wonderful as ever in Captain Victory. Fox brings a controlled chaos of action to the pages. Fox effectively uses every inch of the page with detail and creative layouts.
Rugg’s pages bring a more golden age style Kirby tone. This is reflective in the story as Rugg’s section is a flashback sequence. Rugg’s pages embrace the square characters, Kirby dots, and tech that a reader might equate with Kirby. While much of the story and art is an homage to the great, even Rugg brings his own style and flair to the pages with trippy layouts. Farinas is limited to two pages this issue but brings his distinct style to the mix and provides the brighter pages of the issue. Brad Simpson is the glue that effectively brings the three artists’ styles together. Simpson colors a bright book using a palette that has a cosmic sentiment to it with pinks, teals and purples. Each artists’ strengths are showcased in their respective pages. Fox, Rugg and Farnias are such great talents that each issue could contain a different workload for the individual artists and the book wouldn’t suffer one bit.
Captain Victory is Casey’s love letter to Kirby and is full of sci-fi goodness. The dialogue is unforgiving, over the top and quirky. Casey makes no bones about giving the readers large doses of sci-fi concepts and terminology with little explanation of their meanings. This approach feels genuine to the material and builds a more engaging world. The reader is dropped into a world full of established ideas and characters. Casey paces the story in a manner that readers can infer the plot and gain some level of context through the visuals and dialogue. The flashback sequence is the closest the issue comes to presenting information to the reader in a straight forward manner.
The story is epic in its scope and structure. The Kirby influences are present in all the right places. The story is true science fiction as Casey and crew make no effort to over-explain everything about the world. Readers are hit with terms and ideas that are foreign but feel at home in the context of the world. Captain Victory is a comic for fans of Kirby, golden age storytelling, artists at the top of their game, engrossing science fiction and an all around unique reading experience.
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