Brian Michael Bendis brings his creator-owned comics to his new publisher, releasing a “new reader friendly” first issue here.
Scarlet 1
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Alex Maleev
With his move to DC Comics, I’m starting to get more experience with Bendis’ writing. Before he started writing Superman, I had only read his POWERS series, which I really enjoyed. But his Jinxworld imprint is now at DC, too, and with a slow week for new comic books, it was the perfect opportunity to try it out.
That’s a hell of a first impression.
SCARLET hooked me right away, with the story of a group of resistance fighters in Portland, Oregon trying to survive against the United States. The book drops us in the middle of the action, though Scarlet, the main character, spends a good chunk of time offering up exposition to keep new readers from falling too far behind.
Alex Maleev’s art is fantastic, and it’s easy to see why this pairing is so celebrated. Maleev’s work compliments Bendis’ words beautifully, and I ended up staring at each panel. I spent so long with this first issue, just taking everything in.
Bendis got me on board with this issue, and I’m going to have to pick up the collected editions that are already available of SCARLET to see how we got here. If you’re a fan of the series already, I’m sure it’s great to have new issues, but if you haven’t tried it yet, this first issue is definitely enough to make you a fan.