AfterShock Reviews: Breach, Belari, Campisi, Hu, Swords, Knights Temporal, Silver City, Shadow Dr
Reviews on the following Aftershock comics in the order I read them:
- Beyond the Breach 1-2
- Clans of Belari 1-2
- Campisi 1
- Search for Hu 1
- Seven Swords 1-3
- Knights Temporal 5
- Silver City 1-4
- Shadow Doctor 1-4
Individual series information can be found here
Series: Beyond the Breach
Issues: 1-2
Rating: 2.5/5 stars
I’m very glad I have issue 2 because 1 is a mediocre setup. At least three other alien/magical worlds have melded into ours so that creatures and beings from them are now rampaging across our world.
Very few people have survived the initial crash, though of course those in towns and cities have held out better. Everyone is on an adrenaline high and tempers are heavy. ANything electronic is now dead.
A Merlin type saves a young woman named Vanessa and a random kid named Dougie, who she found after her car crashed. The three, along with a cute otherworldly creature head into town where they are almost killed. And they are faced with more dangers.
It’s not a bad premise, but the implementation falls flat for me. I’ll keep reading in the hopes it picks up.
Series: Clans of Belari
Issues: 1-2
Rating: 5/5 stars
Futuristic Science Fiction? Check
Beautiful art? Check
Utterly fantastic worldbuilding? Check
Humans being humans? Double check.
This takes place many years in the future. 100 generations ago, a woman left Earth on some very secret technological spacecraft that brought her and her people to the other side of the Milky Way galaxy, to the Belari system. There, one of the guys found alien technology, weapons that most were trying to escape.
Thus, the 7 clans were developed, along with some very important rules:
1) No clan or person can exit the system (this was initially because the technology wasn’t there, but I feel like there is more to that now.
2) No person or clan can do the work of another clan.
3) No clan can merge.
4) Breaking any of these rules means you become an Outcast. And outcasts are essentially slaves, people who do the mining work.
Captain Gummy’s ship is shot down by the Metal Clan, and he is the sole survivor, along with one of the Outcasts he was transporting. The four-year-old Te’a grows up believing Gummy is her biological father, but learns the truth 8 years later when he makes her his apprentice doing transport work. Except, she wants to be a pilot. It’s a Top Tier job though, and Gummy’s status has fallen after the events at the start of issue 1.
Te’a points out major flaws and issues with the clan system. While Gummy justifies it all, it’s very obvious he agrees with her, given that he performs acts of defiance, including taking Te’a as his own.
The worldbuilding begins in issue 1, both within the story and with the content at the end. But it flows beautifully into issue 2, where the past and present are woven together. This is where we find out how the clan system developed, and what the chieftains are up to now.
One man in particular wants more outcasts, because that means more miners. And he wants a way to leave the system.
No matter the “main” character, it’s obvious that things are going to go to hell.
I would love a novel (or a duology) of this because it is packed with content that can easily be embellished and enhanced on.
Series: Campisi
Issue: 1
Rating: 4/5 stars
I’d have rated this higher if I liked the art more. I truly don’t like the art at all.
Ages ago, dragons roamed the Earth minding their own business. Now, they are few but still known, still powerful. Kraken also exist, and both have recently been seen in other cities.
Sonny Campisi is from Green Village, which makes me think of a place like the Bronx. He’s a mobster, but dedicated to his neighborhood. He cares more about the people than his reputation, and I like him.
Then a dragon from the Clan of the West comes. This wants revenge on the descendant of Luthermore, a person who betrayed the clan. There is a lot of extra info at the end of this issue via a 4th grade book report (one the teacher is super harsh on) and I’m looking forward to the rest of the story.
Series: Search for Hu
Issue: 1
Rating: 4/5 stars
After Aaron, a young war vet, comes home, his parents are shot. In the hospital, his mom tells him that she’s the descendant of Russian Jews and Chinese gangsters. But shortly after the marriage, the families split and hate each other. She’s sure the shooting means that the Hu family found her.
Aaron goes to Seoul to meet up with his best friend, M.K. (who is great with intel) and the two head to China to figure out what’s going on. Aaron’s mom isn’t a fan of this (his dad doesn’t know because he wasn’t awake at the time--he may not even know mom's heritage) but understands.
In China, M.K. points out Aaron’s cousins just before a shootout happens between them and the Hus. I really like the explanation on the different characters at the end of the issue, along with the family tree.
Series: Seven Swords
Issues: 1-3
Rating: 4.7/5 stars
This is an interesting continuation of the “Three Musketeers” story, where D’artagnan is older and the only surviving Musketeer from Richelieu’s purge. But that awful man is still alive, and has turned to the Occult. I think he is literally demonic and possessed, but he can just be that evil. He has the hilt of the fabled Morningstar and is searching for the blade. It’s believed that when the two are brought back together, hell will pretty much break loose.
D’artagnan’s former captain Treville is also alive, and wants him to find/stop Richelieu. But he doesn’t want to go until he faces some trouble, and gathers up a Sister Catalina, Don Juan, Cyrano de Bergerac, and a diva swordswoman named Maupin to help. It’s a motley crew and it’s quite humorous to watch their interactions.
Between issues 2 and 3, the artist changes. Now, I actually like the character art for issue 3 better since it’s less hard and is more realistic, but I was into the art for issues 1 & 2 (I love all the detail and the colors, though those are as good in 3 [especially since the colorist is the same]), so the style change is quite evident and jarring.
In issue 3, we are also introduced to two other members of the ad hoc team: Captain Peter Blood and a prisoner named Ahmed. The building of the crew is done really well, and it worries me that there are likely only two issues left, because I want the search for Richelieu and prevention of Lucifer’s sword from being recrafted to be comprehensive.
Series: Knights Temporal
Issue: 5
Rating: 4/5 stars
August almost broke reality by summoning his alternate selves. He seeks out the Sorcerer and learns Jane isn’t as trustworthy as he thought (and IIRC, I didn’t trust her fully).
It’s very odd until it’s not. That’s the problem with stories focusing on the blending of timelines, of alternate realities.
This has a fitting end.
Series: Silver City
Issues: 1-4
Rating: 4.7/5 stars
A mass tragedy in an airport leaves people dead and their souls headed to Silver City. It’s a purgatory-type metropolis where there are police and others to sort out the actual dead from the unconscious living. Bodies don’t age or decay there, but they also don’t heal.
There’s a dog with a sword on its collar, which is awesome.
A young woman named Ru winds up with the already dead Mick and Vicky, and the recently dead kid, Junie. Except Junie isn’t dead, so the Watchers are after her and more gung-ho than normal.
Mick believes in the Siler Knight, and the myth that the worlds of the living and dead used to be connected. Now they’re not, so people fear death, yet he knows that the Silver Knight is meant to reunite the worlds and free people from this fear-and, IMO, Silver City. Mick is actually a former guardian in the Silver Knight’s army, but how that’s the case with him only having been dead since the 1950s is beyond me.
Vicky is a skeptic and takes umbrage with Ru, especially after learning that Junie is a “veggie.”
Ru had already developed telekinesis on Earth (though people called her a witch, which is odd), but in Silver City, where her mind constantly replays her past traumas AND the deaths of others, the TK manifests even more, drawing the Watchers closer to her. Her abilities cause Mick to suspect she’s an Ancient, and helps her to relive the past of her and Ru’s death to maybe prevent the girl from falling comatose. The former works, meaning she is indeed an old soul, but not the latter. Oh, and Ru learns something that breaks my own heart that I didn’t suspect until issue 4 and still don’t want to believe.
This is a series I hope takes more than one more issue to resolve the storyline because it’s quite good and there is so much here.
Series: Shadow Doctor
Issues: 1-4
Rating: 5/5 stars
I am surprising myself at the full 5 stars because the art isn’t my favorite, but the story is fantastic. This is based on a true story, of Peter Calloway’s grandfather, Nathaniel. The story weaves pieces of Nathaniel’s past, and each issue is presented differently. We get information of Nathaniel as a youth in the 1920s and then as a doctor in the early 1930s before flashing back to the 1910s and then back to the ‘30s, then a reprieve to “present” day 1979 as he’s telling his story to his son. Because his son didn’t know his history before then.
Nathaniel Calloway was a Black man who did a whisky run for the Italians in the 1920s. They were ambushed by the Irish, but the Italians came out for the better. From then, Nathaniel was determined to be a doctor.
Flash forward 8 years to the tail of the Depression. Nathaniel indeed has his doctor’s license and is even almost hired…until they learn he’s Black. It’s “nothing personal” except it is-it’s his skin.
But he recalls the job with the Italians and reaches out to the mafia, to Al Capone, for help.
Capone isn’t the greatest of guys, but he cuts Nathaniel some slack and is reasonable. He won’t lend money because he’s not one you want to owe money to, and knows Nathaniel won’t get the clients he needs for the money. Mama Capone offers some advice and Capone ends up fronting an office for Nathaniel.
He ends up elbows deep in the mob, recalling pieces of his past that led him here, that caused him to be the man he is. But he is not a fan of being an accomplice to the crimes, especially since he patches up criminals so they can keep killing. He seeks a way out all the while continuing to try to reach out to the Black community. And eventually they see his worth.
- Beyond the Breach 1-2
- Clans of Belari 1-2
- Campisi 1
- Search for Hu 1
- Seven Swords 1-3
- Knights Temporal 5
- Silver City 1-4
- Shadow Doctor 1-4
Individual series information can be found here
Series: Beyond the Breach
Issues: 1-2
Rating: 2.5/5 stars
I’m very glad I have issue 2 because 1 is a mediocre setup. At least three other alien/magical worlds have melded into ours so that creatures and beings from them are now rampaging across our world.
Very few people have survived the initial crash, though of course those in towns and cities have held out better. Everyone is on an adrenaline high and tempers are heavy. ANything electronic is now dead.
A Merlin type saves a young woman named Vanessa and a random kid named Dougie, who she found after her car crashed. The three, along with a cute otherworldly creature head into town where they are almost killed. And they are faced with more dangers.
It’s not a bad premise, but the implementation falls flat for me. I’ll keep reading in the hopes it picks up.
Series: Clans of Belari
Issues: 1-2
Rating: 5/5 stars
Futuristic Science Fiction? Check
Beautiful art? Check
Utterly fantastic worldbuilding? Check
Humans being humans? Double check.
This takes place many years in the future. 100 generations ago, a woman left Earth on some very secret technological spacecraft that brought her and her people to the other side of the Milky Way galaxy, to the Belari system. There, one of the guys found alien technology, weapons that most were trying to escape.
Thus, the 7 clans were developed, along with some very important rules:
1) No clan or person can exit the system (this was initially because the technology wasn’t there, but I feel like there is more to that now.
2) No person or clan can do the work of another clan.
3) No clan can merge.
4) Breaking any of these rules means you become an Outcast. And outcasts are essentially slaves, people who do the mining work.
Captain Gummy’s ship is shot down by the Metal Clan, and he is the sole survivor, along with one of the Outcasts he was transporting. The four-year-old Te’a grows up believing Gummy is her biological father, but learns the truth 8 years later when he makes her his apprentice doing transport work. Except, she wants to be a pilot. It’s a Top Tier job though, and Gummy’s status has fallen after the events at the start of issue 1.
Te’a points out major flaws and issues with the clan system. While Gummy justifies it all, it’s very obvious he agrees with her, given that he performs acts of defiance, including taking Te’a as his own.
The worldbuilding begins in issue 1, both within the story and with the content at the end. But it flows beautifully into issue 2, where the past and present are woven together. This is where we find out how the clan system developed, and what the chieftains are up to now.
One man in particular wants more outcasts, because that means more miners. And he wants a way to leave the system.
No matter the “main” character, it’s obvious that things are going to go to hell.
I would love a novel (or a duology) of this because it is packed with content that can easily be embellished and enhanced on.
Series: Campisi
Issue: 1
Rating: 4/5 stars
I’d have rated this higher if I liked the art more. I truly don’t like the art at all.
Ages ago, dragons roamed the Earth minding their own business. Now, they are few but still known, still powerful. Kraken also exist, and both have recently been seen in other cities.
Sonny Campisi is from Green Village, which makes me think of a place like the Bronx. He’s a mobster, but dedicated to his neighborhood. He cares more about the people than his reputation, and I like him.
Then a dragon from the Clan of the West comes. This wants revenge on the descendant of Luthermore, a person who betrayed the clan. There is a lot of extra info at the end of this issue via a 4th grade book report (one the teacher is super harsh on) and I’m looking forward to the rest of the story.
Series: Search for Hu
Issue: 1
Rating: 4/5 stars
After Aaron, a young war vet, comes home, his parents are shot. In the hospital, his mom tells him that she’s the descendant of Russian Jews and Chinese gangsters. But shortly after the marriage, the families split and hate each other. She’s sure the shooting means that the Hu family found her.
Aaron goes to Seoul to meet up with his best friend, M.K. (who is great with intel) and the two head to China to figure out what’s going on. Aaron’s mom isn’t a fan of this (his dad doesn’t know because he wasn’t awake at the time--he may not even know mom's heritage) but understands.
In China, M.K. points out Aaron’s cousins just before a shootout happens between them and the Hus. I really like the explanation on the different characters at the end of the issue, along with the family tree.
Series: Seven Swords
Issues: 1-3
Rating: 4.7/5 stars
This is an interesting continuation of the “Three Musketeers” story, where D’artagnan is older and the only surviving Musketeer from Richelieu’s purge. But that awful man is still alive, and has turned to the Occult. I think he is literally demonic and possessed, but he can just be that evil. He has the hilt of the fabled Morningstar and is searching for the blade. It’s believed that when the two are brought back together, hell will pretty much break loose.
D’artagnan’s former captain Treville is also alive, and wants him to find/stop Richelieu. But he doesn’t want to go until he faces some trouble, and gathers up a Sister Catalina, Don Juan, Cyrano de Bergerac, and a diva swordswoman named Maupin to help. It’s a motley crew and it’s quite humorous to watch their interactions.
Between issues 2 and 3, the artist changes. Now, I actually like the character art for issue 3 better since it’s less hard and is more realistic, but I was into the art for issues 1 & 2 (I love all the detail and the colors, though those are as good in 3 [especially since the colorist is the same]), so the style change is quite evident and jarring.
In issue 3, we are also introduced to two other members of the ad hoc team: Captain Peter Blood and a prisoner named Ahmed. The building of the crew is done really well, and it worries me that there are likely only two issues left, because I want the search for Richelieu and prevention of Lucifer’s sword from being recrafted to be comprehensive.
Series: Knights Temporal
Issue: 5
Rating: 4/5 stars
August almost broke reality by summoning his alternate selves. He seeks out the Sorcerer and learns Jane isn’t as trustworthy as he thought (and IIRC, I didn’t trust her fully).
It’s very odd until it’s not. That’s the problem with stories focusing on the blending of timelines, of alternate realities.
This has a fitting end.
Series: Silver City
Issues: 1-4
Rating: 4.7/5 stars
A mass tragedy in an airport leaves people dead and their souls headed to Silver City. It’s a purgatory-type metropolis where there are police and others to sort out the actual dead from the unconscious living. Bodies don’t age or decay there, but they also don’t heal.
There’s a dog with a sword on its collar, which is awesome.
A young woman named Ru winds up with the already dead Mick and Vicky, and the recently dead kid, Junie. Except Junie isn’t dead, so the Watchers are after her and more gung-ho than normal.
Mick believes in the Siler Knight, and the myth that the worlds of the living and dead used to be connected. Now they’re not, so people fear death, yet he knows that the Silver Knight is meant to reunite the worlds and free people from this fear-and, IMO, Silver City. Mick is actually a former guardian in the Silver Knight’s army, but how that’s the case with him only having been dead since the 1950s is beyond me.
Vicky is a skeptic and takes umbrage with Ru, especially after learning that Junie is a “veggie.”
Ru had already developed telekinesis on Earth (though people called her a witch, which is odd), but in Silver City, where her mind constantly replays her past traumas AND the deaths of others, the TK manifests even more, drawing the Watchers closer to her. Her abilities cause Mick to suspect she’s an Ancient, and helps her to relive the past of her and Ru’s death to maybe prevent the girl from falling comatose. The former works, meaning she is indeed an old soul, but not the latter. Oh, and Ru learns something that breaks my own heart that I didn’t suspect until issue 4 and still don’t want to believe.
This is a series I hope takes more than one more issue to resolve the storyline because it’s quite good and there is so much here.
Series: Shadow Doctor
Issues: 1-4
Rating: 5/5 stars
I am surprising myself at the full 5 stars because the art isn’t my favorite, but the story is fantastic. This is based on a true story, of Peter Calloway’s grandfather, Nathaniel. The story weaves pieces of Nathaniel’s past, and each issue is presented differently. We get information of Nathaniel as a youth in the 1920s and then as a doctor in the early 1930s before flashing back to the 1910s and then back to the ‘30s, then a reprieve to “present” day 1979 as he’s telling his story to his son. Because his son didn’t know his history before then.
Nathaniel Calloway was a Black man who did a whisky run for the Italians in the 1920s. They were ambushed by the Irish, but the Italians came out for the better. From then, Nathaniel was determined to be a doctor.
Flash forward 8 years to the tail of the Depression. Nathaniel indeed has his doctor’s license and is even almost hired…until they learn he’s Black. It’s “nothing personal” except it is-it’s his skin.
But he recalls the job with the Italians and reaches out to the mafia, to Al Capone, for help.
Capone isn’t the greatest of guys, but he cuts Nathaniel some slack and is reasonable. He won’t lend money because he’s not one you want to owe money to, and knows Nathaniel won’t get the clients he needs for the money. Mama Capone offers some advice and Capone ends up fronting an office for Nathaniel.
He ends up elbows deep in the mob, recalling pieces of his past that led him here, that caused him to be the man he is. But he is not a fan of being an accomplice to the crimes, especially since he patches up criminals so they can keep killing. He seeks a way out all the while continuing to try to reach out to the Black community. And eventually they see his worth.