ICYMI! Icon vs. Hardware #1: Worlds Collide

When would you go if you could go back in time?

For most black people, the answer is, “I wouldn’t,” and for obvious reasons, but in Icon vs. Hardware, that’s the central question asked by Reginald Hudlin and Leon Chills – where would Curtis Metcalf go? This first issue mostly acts as set up for the rest of the series, and potentially events that were alluded to in Blood Syndicate, as not much happens besides Metcalf convincing his father to reconcile with his family which ends up muddying the timeline. Hudlin and Chills do a great job of showing that Hardware hasn’t just been resting on his laurels since the battle against Edwin Alva, but that he’s been researching the alien superhero Icon and trying to figure out a way to use his technology to fully escape from Alva Industries tracking him. This is the main impetus that gets us to the main crux of the story.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much meat in this issue outside of some great character driven writing for Hardware himself as he recognizes that having his actual father in his life would have made it less likely for men like Alva to take advantage of him. The high points of this book are the ending and the segments, likely written by Chills, where Rocket is seen attending a prestige boarding school with a haughty white population and a few bullied minorities. These segments give the book a sense of levity and helps readers keep track of what Rocket is up to when she’s not saving the world, but is instead standing against perceived racial injustices on a smaller scale. This isn’t to say that the book is bad, but simply middle of the road until the real action begins.

The art by Denys Cowan and Yasmin Florez Montanez, however, are absolutely fantastic for both classic comic readers and young adults respectively.

Cowan has always had this gritty edge to his art, especially when drawing Hardware. There’s an inherent darkness to the character that brings with it a seriousness that Cowan conveys through stern facial expressions that showcase his years of toil and strong body language. There are a number of pages with Hardware just standing that make him look powerful as his suit and the power radiating off of it are showcased with immense detail.  His heavy use of jagged, hatched lines for shading gives everything a sharp feel, especially as a lot of the art in this issue make use of them for shadows and other texture – this is helped immensely by John Floyd and John Stanisci’s inks, making those lines thicker and more defined.

Montanez’ art, on the other hand, is a bit softer with elegant linework and a more hopeful outlook. Montanez uses a lot of medium shots that can be interpreted as showing us that Raquel is learning how much bigger the world is than Dakota, especially after spending so much time helping Icon in also expanding his view of the world. This use of pulled out shots gives the few close ups that much more weight when we see how uncomfortable she is at first. She doesn’t think that she’ll fit in with the other students, which shows how great Montanez is at conveying story through character expressions before we see Rocket smile more throughout the book when she earns the respect of other students by standing up to their bully.

Chris Sotomayor’s colors bring the art all together as he manages to show his versatility between both artists’ work. When coloring the Hardware sections, his colors take on a far darker tone with deep reds, muted browns and greens and other shades that make the book feel more grounded despite its sci-fi nature. They show that Metcalf never forgot where he came from and the dark lengths he’ll go to to make things better in his life, no matter what the consequences might be. The Rocket segments take on much brighter colors with a lot of vibrant blues in her uniform, pastel colors in the school’s background bright whites for the snowy exterior since the school is in the mountains. It stands in contrast to the more earthy tones that Dakota City usually consists of and shows how out of her element Rocket is and the difficulties she may face acclimating to her new environment, but also has a hopefulness as she seems very ready to try!

And finally, AndWorld Design’s lettering brings the entire book together as they use a variety of styles to convey Hudlin and Chills’ words. As Rocket writes in her diary, her captions are represented by light blue boxes resembling notebook paper. Icon’s thought boxes are black boxes with red lettering and his on board AI has circular boxes filled with orange. Each of these are unique in that they serve characters’ purposes in similar ways, but still convey a sense of individuality for each of them, making them vastly distinct and interesting to read.