Cherish #1 // Review
Her husband was killed on her wedding day. Her father was killed when she was a kid. She’s out for revenge against the company that had her father killed in Cherish #1. Writer Katana Collins opens up an action suspense story that is rendered for the page by Gabriel Caitano. Color comes to the page courtesy of Omi Remalante Jr. Collins puts quite a bit into play in the first twenty pages of the news series. It’s all familiar enough that it feels like cozy corporate sci-fi action without quite falling so far into cliche that it runs the risk of feeling boring...yet...
Cherish breaks into the corporate headquarters of Unicon. There’s so much tech hanging around the place. Cherish could make things so much easier for herself by taking some of it, but that’s not what she’s come for. She’s come to get employment as an administrative assistant. She’s not going to make it through the whole process without tripping an alarm of some sort, though. Thankfully, she’s got some advanced tech of her own that will allow her to escape in time. Getting the job is the easy part. The rest is going to be dangerous.
Collins is working with a well-worn set of action tropes. There’s nothing new that’s being invented in the first issue. A girl sees her father killed. Years later, her newly-wedded husband is killed. The rest of the plot takes place somewhere in between. Cherish is cool. Sleek, stylish, and formidable while still managing to seem like she’s in way over her head. It’s a little shaky at first trying to connect with the title character as Collins throws the reader directly into a very troubled life, but she becomes quite sympathetic by the end of the issue.
Caitano frames the non-action end of the drama without much style or form for the most part. To be fair, Collins isn’t giving him a whole lot of novel dramatic space to engage the reader emotionally. The action does look cool. Cherish’s action outfit is appealing--black with glowing green highlights that give Omi Remalante Jr. a beautiful palette to work with. This chapter makes a visual impression. There’s a refreshing contrast between the brightly lit corporate world of Cherish’s day job and the ominous darkness of Cherish’s vendetta.
The opening shows some promise. If Caitano and Remalante Jr. can find a sharper definition in and within the drama of Cherish’s daily life, there will be more of a balance between the two ends of the series. Collins has a clear definition of the overall plot that she’ll use to expand on the elements of Cherish’s personality, which will make her more interesting on the page. The first issue is a promising step in establishing a comic that will develop in the issues to come. There’s a lot of good that could be expanded on as the series progresses.
