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Horizon #5
Publisher: Image
Writer: Brandon Thomas
Artist: Juan Gedeon
Colorist: Frank Martin
Cover: Jason Howard

After five issues Horizon is still on fire and after the craziness of last issue Thomas doesn’t let his foot off the gas while delivering a tense battle of words and ideologies here. Showing that he can dazzle you with the narrative as well as jaw dropping scripted action sequences and violence. This is something that was pretty much established in the first couple of issues but right here, right now, Thomas gets cerebral as Zhia interrogates her prisoner, Ellis Howe. This is where you find out how she really feels about Earth and how our society had the potential to do right but in the end just went the other way. She also hints that her planet wasn’t the first one that has fallen victim to Earth’s desperation. The dialogue between the two seems so natural and isn’t filled with the usual cliché round of banter. It’s smooth, almost rhythmic and you feel the animosity and unforgiving nature coming from Zhia. But Howe isn’t some one dimensional adversary either and shouldn’t be taken lightly as Finn finds out. Speaking of Finn, Thomas shows that he still hasn’t fully recovered from his own imprisonment and is still dealing with the mental and psychological ramifications of being a POW.

I’d like to see the look on Thomas’ face when he gets pages from Gedeon because I’m just going to assume it’s much like mine after opening up the issue. Gedeon has done nothing but deliver one visual punch after another whether showing off some of the action or just building on the mood. He also leans more on showing how the tech works in the story which has been excellent. This always makes for some exciting scenes and shows just how prepared the Valians are and the lengths they have to go through to accomplish their mission. Gedeon also shows off more of Zhia’s skills as she covers 15 city blocks in a matter of minutes. It’s several pages of tense action mixed with several others that just build on one another until you get the last page which delivers that classic “Oh damn!” moment. Frank Martin’s colors help take things up a notch once again but it’s the scene where Agent Davix goes on a rampage that stands out the most. Everything goes red except her and it adds another level of ferocity to the moment. Let’s also take a moment to shout out Jason Howard as he once again tells a story with these great minimalist covers.

Horizon is not only smart and gripping sci-fi but it has the diversity that people are looking for without press releases begging that you notice it. You’re getting a well rounded cast where everyone seems to operate in the grey area and it’s up to you to decide where you stand when it’s all said and done. So yeah, go and pick up the other issues if you haven’t started reading Horizon yet then and make sure you grab this one as well.

Infinite Speech
infinitespeech@comicattack.net