Broken Frontier

Joe Hill’s The Cape returns and finds Eric embracing corruption and immorality.

The first issue of Jason Ciaramella’s new ongoing Joe Hill’s The Cape picks up right where the amazing one-shot story left off.  Eric has completely fallen from grace and has accepted his villainy, while his crimes simultaneously become more vile and gruesome. 

What is even more interesting than Eric’s horrid exploits is his backstory, introducing a sibling rivalry which began early in his life, and ultimately led to his rebirth as a villain.  Eric’s brother has been labeled the family hero ever since he “rescued” his brother from his tragic fall, leading Eric to now despise him.  Ciaramella begins to foreshadow an oncoming confrontation as Eric will no doubt aim his hatred and insanity towards his brother, Nick, in the upcoming issues.

Ciaramella’s theme of a fallen hero now reaping his revenge is incredibly captivating, even as Eric continues his horrible crimes and atrocities, part of him is still feels redeemable.  Despite him being despicable in almost every way possible, part of me still sympathizes with him, making him an extraordinarily deep, complex, and conflicted character. 

Zack Howard’s art is even more exciting, detailed, and beautiful than his amazing work in the one-shot.  Howard flexes each of his artistic muscles between tragic hospital scenes, horrifying morgue viewings, and gory street fights.  Every possible emotion is compacted and on full display in one page, for example, where Eric’s entire adult life is summarized in nine gorgeous cell-phone photographs.  His continued use of a unique style of shading also adds a nostalgic superhero feel to his art, which works perfectly into Ciaramella’s theme.  Colorist Nelson Daniel also makes use of an exceptionally diverse color palette throughout the issue, giving each sequence its own distinct feeling and atmosphere.

There’s no telling where Jason Ciaramella’s story will take Eric over the next three issues.  Eric’s tragic history and pitiful existence are so conflicting, it is unsure whether he is redeemable or if he will succumb to his own destruction.