Velocity #1

Velocity #1

Jul 01

[Note: A review copy of Velocity #1 was provided by the publisher.]

I can’t tell you five meaningful things about Cyberforce. Maybe not even three.

I don’t tell you this as a slight against Image Comics or Top Cow or Marc Silvestri, but to establish that I don’t know anything meaningful about a superhero franchise that has been around for nearly 20 years now. I have a gap in my comics knowledge shaped almost exactly like the O5-era Image books.

The good news is that Velocity doesn’t require that you to carry any of that baggage. It would bog you down, anyway, and Velocity, just like its title character, is all about going fast.

Speed is inherent in Ron Marz’s mandate here, as the book gracefully caroms from action scene to action scene, slowing down to offer up exposition, but never stopping.  Carin Taylor’s origin, powers and teammates are all explained without the book grinding to a halt. The reader also sees Carin’s personality in action – youthful, heroic, in love with her powers but a little maudlin about their cost.  There are also killer robots and a race-against-the-clock plot that set a tone of kinetic superhero action.

Also shouldering the credit for Velocity‘s success is Kenneth Rocafort. Rocafort – who’s probably best known for his work on Paul Dini’s Madame Mirage – uses every tool at his disposal to keep the book moving along quickly and his trademark sketchy style is perfectly suited to a title character that moves at Mach 3. He draws Carin like a runner with a runner’s body, makes her costume feel like the superheroine version of a roller derby uniform and (without aping it) reminds me of Karl Kerschl’s work on The Flash, which epitomizes fast, loose, kinetic storytelling for me.

If this is a light week for you, and you’re looking for a short-term comics romance, this is the comic out this week that I’d recommend to you. It’s the first of four issues, has a minimum of baggage and a surplus of action and speed, and is more accessible than most recent mainstream first issues.