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The Switch: Electricia a Kick-Ass Kickstarter Graphic Novel
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Submitted by RJ Carter on Tue, 07/03/2018 - 12:30
From the pen of Keith Champagne and the pencils of Tom Nguyen comes THE SWITCH: ELECTRICIA, a superheroes and supervillains saga in the tradition of KICK-ASS and THE AUTHORITY and made possible through the use of Kickstarter.
Electricia is a bad girl. Very bad. She controls electricity and uses it to commit crimes with her fellow criminals, collectively known as Murderer's Row. They have a satellite and everything, and an array of powers that dwarf Electricia's own. Like their leader, Lover Boy -- a mullet sporting tub who controls you with his voice, Dr. Hate -- an evil genius trapped in the body of a purple cat, Interstellar -- a boy possessed by an alien space god, and... Vladimir Putin? Yes!
When we meet Murderer's Row, they've just finished a heist that resulted in the defeat, and eventual grisly murder, of Brigade member The Switch. When Electricia is ordered to hunt down and finish off his young sidekick, Switcheroo, we get a glimpse of Electricia's character flaw -- there are some people she just won't kill. And when she attends (secretly, of course) the funeral for The Switch, she gets taken with the idea of replacing him and becoming the hero.
For the rest of the book we follow Electricia's moral dilemma. Can she be redeemed? Will she be accepted? Will her actions be the death of her -- from either the heroes or the villains?
Keith Champagne pulls no punches with his characters and their extreme actions. Lover Boy is as deadly as Garth Ennis's PREACHER, although he frequently uses his commanding voice to sexually assault Electricia. Interstellar can transport anyone or anything anywhere in the universe. The Moss is... well, he's a big walking hunk of moss so that's pretty dang weird! The heroes are just as extreme, including no less than the Ghost of Ronald Reagan and a 1000 year old pre-teen called The Truth. Each of them uses their power in ruthless and bloody fashion, including Electricia herself.
Tom Nguyen's artwork is a rare treat in that all of his characters -- including background characters -- look different. There are no generic faces, no two-dimensional settings. Everything and everyone is individual in a fashion that takes me back to the heyday of artists like George Perez.
THE SWITCH: ELECTRICIA is wall-to-wall jawdropping action, in a completely realized universe where the reader doesn't have to know a thing about history. There's no continuity to bog you down, and no cliffhanger ending to feel like you've been baited (although we'd love to see more of what's left of this world). Get this one on your pull list if it's not there already, or head out to Amazon to reserve your copy now.
Grade:
4.5 / 5.0
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