Icon Vs. Hardware #2: Power is Inevitable

Some things are just fixed points when it comes to time travel.

This is the lesson readers are given when Curtis Metcalf, aka Hardware, goes back in time to make his past and future better than it was. Leon Chills and Reginald Hudlin do a fantastic job in laying out how Metcalf’s hubris and arrogance bring him into direct conflict with the much more powerful Icon, who is easily able to remind him that no one man is greater than another. When Metcalf is put on trial for Alva’s murder, Chills and Hudlin, evoke the terror that an unfortunate amount of black people have faced with unjust court proceedings and prosecutors that will sooner slander their character before reviewing evidence. Metcalf is shown as lucky when he has video footage of the incident and is soon raised to Alva’s old position in the company, allowing him to use the experimental Q-Juice at his own pace.

What I like about this turn of events is that Metcalf is put in a similar position as Alva. While he is more judicious with his science, his slow output of Q-Juice results in an even more violent outbreak of super-powered individuals. Chills and Hudlin make it very apparent that the actions of main universe Hardware and the alt-universe Curtis have consequences he can’t just run away from. The same thing can be said for the Rocket story that’s happening concurrently as the sense of rebellion that she’s started amongst the other students of color spills out in the form of them defending themselves against the white bullies. When one incident results in a fight, the school’s principal pulls her aside and leaves the book with a massive cliffhanger alongside another Metcalf mistake!

Denys Cowan’s art is stellar in this issue as it blends calm but tense moments and action-packed scenes. In the trial and arrest that the book begins with, Cowan conveys Metcalf’s sense of ease with facial expressions like a stone that show his assuredness of innocence – this is doubled down with the appearance of his lawyer. This smooth-talking man resembles the infamous Johnnie Cochran minus the glasses. Cowan’s style is unique and easily recognizable with his thick lines, hatched shading methods, and hard edges that give each of his books a sense of darkness.

The action sequences that occur in the middle and end help to further the book’s story and showcase the talents of both of its lead characters. Cowan has an eye for action and terrifying set pieces that showcase the destruction that Dakota experiences due to the fights between the Bang Babies and the squad of riot police. These scenes are bombastic with wide shots of explosions, people getting rained on with Q-Juice, and the SWAT officers taking the fight to Icon as he tries to intervene against the fighting. He’s drawn with his same powerful stance but with a listless gaze, seeing the world as far worse off than he could have imagined, especially with Rocket dead in this timeline. This makes his later fight with both Hardwares all the more brutal as he uses his heat vision, plasma absorption, and other powers against them, culminating in him using his super strength to destroy their suits with a rage that readers haven’t seen from him up to this point – with broad arm movements, anger on his face and metallic debris flying towards the reader in a fantastic single splash page.

Though given less page space in this issue, Yasmin Flores Montanez’s art for the section dealing with Raquel is also excellent with its lighter tone. Though not much happens to advance her story in this issue, Montanez makes sure to use her smooth linework and penchant for close, expressive shots to give the book and matching panels with Cowan a sense of time-bending urgency when a new threat emerges against Rocket and Hardware in the modern day and pre-Colonial times. 

Christopher Sotomayor’s colors blend excellently with both artists’ styles and give the book a great sense of life. In the pages dedicated to Hardware, Sotomayor tends to color things with hot colors, like yellow, red, and oranges, to capture the volatile nature of Curtis Metcalf’s actions. Between the slightly yellow hue of the court scene giving off a sense of fear to the hot oranges of an explosion in the Q-Juice lab, these pages are full of tension and heavy emotion. Even Icon’s costume being given a red and black coloring evokes anger and mournfulness over humanity’s new direction, following Curtis giving them superpowers and then turning violent. In Montanez’s pages, his lighter, almost pastel colors give off a little cooler feeling, like the conflict at Raquel’s school isn’t as heated as Hardware’s fight with Icon. There is a bevy of blues and purples, the purple being the most important when the cliffhanger character reveals themselves as readers understand that he is after more power.

Finally, AndWorld Designs letters tie the book together by making the dialogue and story flow quickly and entertaining readers with bombastic sound effects. They’re loud and give the book a great sense of volume. Word bubbles should always do their best to be discreet and complimentary to the art, and AndWord design is excellent at doing just that – their word bubbles are excellently placed to not obscure character actions and varied to indicate when people like Hardware are talking through their suits, such as making his balloons rectangular with electric tails. Their sound effects also take center stage, with large KRRSHHH and HRAAGGHH’s emanating from broken equipment and people in agony.

Though, for all of the things there are to praise in the book, if I had to level any criticism towards it, I would have to say that I don’t feel like it entirely lives up to its title. The conflict between the two heroes is almost secondary to Hardware’s journey to improve history through time travel. While they do fight in this issue, it feels like more of a setup for things to come with the introduction of the actual villain at the end of the book. Of course, this is the second issue, so a bit of a preamble is to be expected. I expect another fight between the pair throughout history and the various timelines, but with only five issues, things feel oddly paced so far.