Livewire #9: Frenemies in High Places

I’ve spent 8 articles so far praising Vita Ayala for all she’s done with Amanda McKee and she continues to impress. I know a lot of criticism I’ve heard has stemmed from Livewire engaging in conflicts hand to hand when she’s incredibly powerful so she kinda doesn’t need to even bother bruising her knuckles on faces. In this issue we get the best of both worlds as we see Livewire flex her Psiot muscle in numerous ways that should remind the gripes Ayala still knows exactly what she’s doing.

This issue also marks the first of Tana Ford. Ford who you might know from books like LaGuardia, Silk, New Warriors and a dozen other things brings a fresh sense of style to the book that does a great job balancing action, drama and comedy with it’s own unique charm. As much as the previous artist Kano nailed it every issue, variety is the spice of life so seeing someone new in the mix was a fun surprise. Definitely doesn’t hurt that her style melds very well with Vita’s work.

All in all we get a solid political thriller that focuses more on the thriller than soapboxing what we already know (politicians are usually garbage people). If that wasn’t enough the following arc will be worth snatching up just for the amazing magazine spoof covers that are insanely well done. If one were to pick up Lifetime or People in the Valiant universe I’d have a hard time believing these upcoming variants wouldn’t be a spot on representation of what they would look like. I’m rarely swayed to buy variant covers unless it’s an artist I’m a Stan for or something like that but any Valiant collector not picking these up might need to have their head examined.