A-Force #1

By G. Willow Wilson, Jorge Molina and Laura Martin

One of the brightest spots of all the Secret War tie-ins was A-Force. An all female team has been attempted before, and it really wasn’t as big of a hit as expected. For proof of this see Brian Wood and Olivier Coipel’s X-Men. The A-Force mini ended up being a big hit with fans and critics alike and paved the way for this brand new ongoing series.

Flying solo on writing duties this time around is G. Willow Wilson. Since she was co-author on the mini-series, it’s pretty obvious that she has a grip on these characters. What works for this issue is that we get it from Singularity’s point of view. Since she survived Secret Wars, she is a little confused as to why all of her friends don’t recognize her. This works because Singularity is a young and naïve character; she doesn’t understand everything that “regular” people do. Wilson allows her to be very cute in this issue as she looks for her friends throughout the galaxy. The way Wilson handles the other characters that appear in this issue works as well. It’s good to see that this new team needs to be put together instead of a continuation. Moving forward, seeing Singularity reconnect with a different universe’s Nico will be interesting. There is more than enough in this first issue to bring fans back for the second issue.

The pencils this issue are handled by Jorge Molina with colors by Laura Martin. Molina is certainly a pretty good artist, so there aren’t too many complaints here. There may be a panel in the beginning of the book where Captain Marvel’s face and head look slightly misshapen, but that’s nit-picking. Other than that, the book looks great and Molina draws the hell out of it. Page 2 and 3 are a combined splash page of Singularity and all of her friends shown in little windows. Everything about these pages is cool. We, as a reader new or old, get a refresher on the team and get a nice splash page to boot. The She-Hulk scenes are probably the best of the issue. Her expressions are well done by Molina; from her surprise upon first meeting Singularity to the look on her face as she falls out a window. Laura Martin is pretty much the best colorist available, so anytime you see her name on a book, know that you’re getting the best. Her little touches with color are what set her apart from others, like shading on She-Hulk’s face as she gets thrown out of a window. The art team was dynamite this issue and really helped add to the strong debut of the series.

A-Force #1 is an all around great book. The script and perspective by G. Willow Wilson makes this a fun read for any fan that may pick this issue up. The art by Jorge Molina and Laura Martin is excellent and should be used as a blueprint for any other book on the shelf. There is a certain level of cohesion with this title that is hardly matched by other books.