Broken Frontier

Ah, superheroes. Our fictional role models, our escapist fantasies. Dropped in world-threatening situations, bestowed with awesome powers and, sadly enough, all too often written with all the emotional depth of cardboard cut-outs.

Then there's NYX .

Let's get something straight. Feeling angry and vengeful when one of your friends is killed, being grateful for the support of your friendly team of super-friends, taking offence at a puppy being kicked... These are not emotions. They are scripts, usually the kind you read in an annoyed, monotonous voice.

The need to belong, the throbbing guilt over all the bad choices you've made, the dull despair over how screwed your life is, painful apathy in the face of it all and the chilling fear when something threatens what little good you've managed to scrape together in the world. Those are emotions, and they just happen to comprise the territory of NYX . If I had to sum the book up in a single word it’d be “creepy”—and I mean that in a positive sense.

NYX has characters you really care about and unlike so many other comics, it doesn't feel safe. There is no guarantee that everything will turn out okay: you know these people have already had it bad and it may very well get worse. In fact, given the first few panels show Kiden beaten and bruised, chained to a dirty table with two IV-needles feeding god-knows-what into her bloodstream, it's pretty certain that things will in fact get much, much worse.

Marjorie Liu reaches the level of the first run by Quesada, and though it is perhaps a bit too early to tell, she may very well exceed it. She knows exactly how to keep that tone of being dealt a bad hand without being depressing. An excellent example of that is the simple, escapist beauty Kiden finds her time-slowing powers to be. On that note, it should be mentioned that Liu's style thrives on atmosphere. When all is said and done, very little actually happens in this issue. Ask yourself whether or not that bothers you before buying this comic. If it does, you might want to wait for the trade instead.

In terms of artistic style, Andrasofsky is dead on target for the series, keeping a nice balance between the realistic and the stylised. He makes use of soft colours that offer an intriguing contrast to the seemingly bleak situation, but which at the same time neatly reflect the general attitude of indifferent, cautious optimism the cast usually carries. Occasionally, a little more attention to correct anatomy and faces might be in order, but most of the time he gets it right.
In general, his work is in perfect harmony with Liu's writing. As mentioned before, it's all about atmosphere, which Andrasofsky does an excellent job of creating.

NYX: No Way Home promises to be every bit as good as the first volume; it may possibly even surpass it. The scene is set for an eerily compelling story backed up by beautiful, if occasionally slightly flawed art.