Broken Frontier

Gorgeous art? CHECK!
Amazing action? CHECK!
Snarly comments? CHECK!
Cool characters? CHECK!

Of all the things I want to witness in comics, for the most part this comic brings it to the table...and some more! I am of course missing the segment "hot babes" but that can be hopefully mended (*wink wink*) in future issues of this sizzling miniseries.

It has been a long time, since last I read issues of Pitt. Pitt was the ultimate gen-crafted warrior, who did not like his masters, rebelled and fled to Earth. Here he met a boy named Timmy, who mind-melded with an alien force that gave Timmy extraordinary mind-powers and with whom Pitt bonded on several (even molecular) levels. The last issues of Pitt gave me an erratic feeling and eventually I just really had no idea where the story was heading to. It did not help at all, that the last issue(s) of Pitt did not even try to resolve the wide-open questions.

However...Pitt as a character has been one of epic proportions and his massive presence and appearance concur that in every single panel of every single comic he has shown his nose-less face in. Dale Keown might not be the best at crafting a maxi-series story-wise, but he did create this character which stands solid and firmly on its own.

In every page you turn, you can also see the dedication for the art Mister Keown produces. Every panel shows the love for the medium and a cunning eye for dynamics, action moments, perspective and the use of light/shadow is used delicately and skillfully.

Letting Paul Jenkins write a story (and without a SINGLE doubt Dale also had a lot of say in the story, but somehow this is left out of the credits) is a superb move, to have Pitt and Timmy meet up with Jackie Estacado (a.k.a. The Darkness). Why? Because the flow of the story is smooth like a summer breeze through the leaves of the Trees of Imagination! All kidding aside, it reminds me of the dynamics of the first issues of the original series of Pitt and it clearly shows that Jenkins has at least read those very issues!

Jenkins also makes the character of Jackie a very cool character, by foregoing the "normal" crossover-momentum ("the battle of the characters") by immediately going to the best phase ("easy or uneasy friendship of the characters") in order to seek out the "bad guy" together. In the meanwhile Jenkins throws in some dark-coated spooks to add a nice extra flavor to the already spicy crossover.

There are a few minor things that bugged me though. Jackie is unable to use his powers during the day other than dowsing himself in a cellar or something akin. But how does the darkness-created shield in the diner (page 6) hold up? And why does Jackie feel the need to kill that streetlight when meeting Pitt/Timmy?

Other than that: kudos all the way and I am anxiously awaiting the next issue.

Extra kudos: the coloring by Frank D'Armata is stunning. I do not know whether this is due to the massive details of the finished pencils Keown is famous for, but it was truly stunning. Also the lettering by Troy Peteri was really cool, especially in the inner dialogue of Jackie at the beginning of the issue as well as the balloons for Pitt.