A Nest of Shadows Review
Reading time: 3 minutes
How about some intense action superhero, super-sleuth shenanigans of subterfuge and saviours in sumptuous black and white art? Mission accomplished with A Nest of Shadows from Stu Perrins and Saint Yak.
Stu Perrins is no stranger to CBNUK with a plethora of comics to his name. The British writer was nominated for both a British Comics Award and Comic Scene Award. His previous works include Chrono-cat, Cosmic Debris, The Curious Case Of Alice Kingsleigh, and Megatomic Battle Rabbit to name just a few.
Saint Yak is a Russian artist of incredible talent. His previous works include Baba Yaga Witch Hunt, Black Death, Broken Gargoyles and a feature in Vagabond: Nowhere Man.
Ron Gravelle is a veteran Letterer with over forty years of experience in indie and mainstream comics. Ron has worked for Blind Bat Press, Landwaster Books, Insane Comics and Markosia. There, he worked with Stu Perrins on the excellent Chrono-cat, Whatever Happened To The Archetype and World Of Noise. With the formalities of introductions finalised, it's time for a review of A Nest of Shadows.
So, let's start with the art. The first thing that strikes you about the art of A Nest Of Shadows is just how furiously talented Saint Yak is at character work. There are some ungodly brilliant panels here, the "dormant errors" panel being a particular highlight of this skill. It's also an excellent showcase of the beauty on offer in character work throughout this issue. The characters show wonderfully clean and crisp ink lines with beautiful pencils incorporated to present a distinct style that is so enjoyable, unique and full of skill and talent.
I did feel the backgrounds were a bit lackluster in the majority of panels. The environments felt overly polished and sterile, missing that personality, and this caused the characters to look out of place in a disjointed sort of way. With such care applied to the sublime character work I did feel there was an uncomfortable disconnect as a result but this was only partially distracting.
Alongside the excellent characters, Ron's lettering work provides a more positive distraction, full of strong delivery and flashes of excellence in its presentation. It provides both art and narrative the ideal vehicle of delivery they deserve. Art appreciation applied, let's get on to the story.
A Nest Of Shadows sees Stu Perrins returning to the superhero genre, this time with a lens on the superpowered in their prime. After a high octane introduction to the being known as Absolute Power, the epitome of a flash in the pan hero, we meet Theodora Gunn and her immediate superior Octavius Pankhurst. The pair have been tasked with investigating Absolute Power's latest iteration. With the help of a more than capable resistance contact known as Bradfield, the trio will conduct an almost undercover mission. It leads to an unexpected finding and an even more unexpected outcome, leaving a whole treasure trove of unanswered questions.
What's great about this book is what is also ultimately quite irksome. You see, Stu creates a rip-roaring tear along of entertainment packed storytelling with more loose threads than a forgetful, legion of cats owning, Nanna's loose knit homemade jumper. Don't get me wrong, these are enticing and wondrous threads like Bradfield's abilities and indeed version two's next move, ambiguity to avoid spoilers. But the point is, there's a lot of very interesting storytelling left on the table here, to the point of borderline frustration.
Hopefully this is all by design, as this is named as issue one, which should imply there is more to come from these characters and universe. The story feels a little scattered but my instincts tell me this is because ultimately this is the set up for a rich new series. I hope that's not wishful thinking.
For fans of superheroes, action, thrillers, spies, superbeings with a super-short, shelf life whether materially or allegiance wise but overflowing in emotional yearning, patriotic visors, overpowered resistance fighters, being anti-Russian military, things called Absolute (I see you Bat-fans) and black and white art that leads the way in character portrayal it's no secret you'll want A Nest Of Shadows.
To get your copy of A Nest of Shadows, the best place would be here, the Shift official website. There you can check out their catalogue and keep an eye out for hopefully future issues.
Review: 4.7/5
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