Villainous Vol #1

Writer: Stonie Williams

Artwork: Jef Sadzinski

Colors: Joana Lafuente

Published By: Mad Cave.

Matilda or “Rep-tilly” is a girl that looks like a reptile and has cool reptilian superpowers. Rep-Tilly has just been given an opportunity of a lifetime. She has been accepted into the Coalition of Heroes apprentice program and not only that, but she has also been assigned to one of the biggest heroes in the coalition. Sadly, she finds out that her assigned Hero Showdown is only interested in saving the “Hot Chicks and is just an overall dirt bag. She is still willing to go along with the program since she wants to stop the real enemy, which is The Shadow Order, however she finds out that the Heroes are not actually heroes and the Villains are not really, well you get it.

Stonie William’s story is powerful. When I reviewed the first issue, I was a little down on it because it was so analogues to The Boys TV show. Thankfully, the rest of the issues of this story arc differentiate it very much from that show. We see that we have a superpower team conflict, but one has much better PR than the other, so the COH is considered good, and the Shadow Order is considered bad. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is interesting to see Rep-Tilly deal with her inner conflict about the situation and then the conflict is ripped away as the COH makes her choice for her. You feel for the characters and feel real weight around what happens to them. The dialog does a great job of getting you up to speed about who each character is without going overboard on the exposition. The writing is made more powerful by the fact that you understand that how a hero looks has a lot to do with their position within the

COH. This is a great analogy to the social issues we face today and helps you to hate the COH even more.

Jef Sadzinski’s artwork is awesome. Each panel is very detailed without going overboard. The shading is perfect and the facial expressions on the characters do an awesome job of telling you what they are feeling. The action scenes are all easy to follow and look impressive. The coloring is also fantastic, it gives each panel a colorful picture that pops, whilst still maintaining the serious tone of the book. My only real complaint is that the background of some of the panels are just black. This works in most of the panels but there is a few that is looks out of place.

Overall, I give Villainous Volume #1 8 capes out of 10. It is fun and poignant and makes you feel for the characters and root hard for them. Even though it shares a little bit of concept with the boys, I think it does a better job.