Capital P Issue Two Review: A Morally Complex Vigilante Tale
How about a return to the bionic monocle sporting, canine-assisted vigilante with a strong moralistic code and a new interior artist? Then get back on patrol with Capital P issue two from Sam Gardner Jr and Ulises Carpintero.
Sam Gardner Jr is a writer and the founder of indie publisher Capeverse Comics. His previous works have been published in the Comichaus anthology and Starburst magazine. His comic that sings and his comic that unfolds into a superhero costume are archived in the V & A Museum of Art & Design.
Argentinian Ulises Carpintero takes over sequential art in this issue. Ulises is an illustrator, Comic Book Artist and Graphic Designer with over twenty years of experience. His previous work includes Forgive Me Father, Black Heart Irregulars, Xarkar and The Caravan of Wealth and Tweets From The End of The World.
Awesome talents acknowledged it's time to get into this one. Although newcomers should be wary of spoilers, and in fact, you should start with the review for issue one. Then go get your copy. Digest it. Be grateful for an awesome new series. Then come back for some persuasion to get issue two. Although you probably won't need any if you've already started. Well, maybe this will help you justify it. Anywho, here we go.
So, let's start with the art. Ulises Carpintero brings a very different style to issue two and the Capital P universe. Ulises has a cleaner, less gritty, less edgy style and an all round more polished presentation. The character work, whether human or canine, is particularly powerful, conveying great emotion and storytelling weight. Ulises has a great eye for detail with the clean lines offering a great showcase for this. This art presents like strong traditional comic art of the modern era and delivers the story with strength and clarity.
The colour work is just as accomplished. The muted and darker leaning palette is doing wonders to help capture the tone set by the first issue. It's really solid, fundamentally sound art with a polished finish. Sure to appeal to the widest audience. A departure from the style of issue one, but a well-accomplished one that I'm sure fans will appreciate. Accomplished art accredited, how's Sam handling the story?
Sam Gardner Jr's Capital P tackles a comic-influenced, but real-world confined, vigilante and delves into practical and political ponderings of a character in this sandbox. If issue one showed a real-world vigilante hitting the streets, issue two sees him hitting the books, offering real-world research for a practically minded vigilante. It's the practicalities explored that offer a rich and unique storytelling vantage, while also curating an engaging and compelling narrative.
Issue one presented an endearing main character full of great qualities facing a moralistic conundrum. With his mind firmly set on an outcome issue two sees him pursuing this idea in search of a solution, and also introduces a potential teammate. This potential teammate, however, may not have the temperament to match our heroes. Ambiguity runs strong in this comic. The hero is, after all, and spoiler warning here, on a mission to free a serial killer to "save" him from the death penalty with something potentially psychotic. i.e., keeping him locked in a dog cage for the rest of his life. Doing this while judging his potential teammates' approach to public relations and his level of violence further adds to the murky pot of moralistic high ground posturing.
Sam crafts an entertaining blend with Capital P, between action, moral musings, practical investigation and light-hearted moments, all with a very real feeling undercurrent. It's another entertaining instalment that feels like it's building into something very special. The world-building and new characters offer very intriguing fodder to add spice to the upcoming confrontation and inevitable collision course of ideas. This is a book to leave you wanting more, and I can't wait for the next instalment.
Interrupting Italic interlude. I hope you grab a copy of this book. It's very good and a promising start to a wonderful series. Because we've helped you find some awesome comics, please consider donating to our Ko-fi. It will help us continue to bring you such delights.
For fans of Superheroes, vigilantes, dogs, comics, red eyes, moralistic musings on codes of ethics capital punishment the value of human life and the lengths an individual will go to uphold their beliefs, libraries, camera leashes, disguises and heists in art that although has lost it's gritty edge is sterling, super and strong stuff consider Capital P the solution.
To get your copy, the best place to be is the Capeverse Comics website here. This is an exceptional time to do it. Book Three premiered at Devcon Plymouth with Events Frontier on the 28th of September at the Crowne Plaza, Plymouth Hoe. Devcon looks like a wonderful event for all those who could attend. I'm sure those unlucky enough not to will still be able to grab their copies through the Capeverse website. For more on Devcon, check out their website here.
Review: 4.6/5.
