Ghost Pepper #1 // Review
Loloi has to focus just right. If she doesn’t get everything just right, it might mean total disaster. And she can’t afford that. Not if she’s going to continue to make some of the more intense street food available. Too many Scovilles and she’ll burn her customer’s tongues. She will soon find that this is the least of her worries in Ghost Pepper #1. Writer/artist Ludo Lullabi establishes an interesting Manga-inspired post-apocalyptic action comedy with heart. Though it isn’t exactly breaking bold new ground, the first issue of the new series is a great deal of fun.
Loloi is working her food truck when they arrive: shortfin controllers. They’re massive robotic sentries. Anyone without the proper permits could get slapped with a serious fine or...maybe worse. Those controllers are towering things with a lot of power. They’re confronting an anomaly...demanding the he identify himself. He’s not going to do so. He’s just sitting there eating a bowl of noodles. The chatty bot on his shoulder recommends that he speak-up, but he’d rather act. Much to everyone’s surprise, the grey bearded man has little trouble dealing with the authorities. His name is Ash. Loloi seems to have made a friend.
Thankfully, Lullaby does not attempt to lay down a whole bunch of backstory. There's just enough on the page to suggest a former apocalypse and a science fiction setting involving food trucks. It's kind of a fun combination of different things that isn't laid into too heavily. Some writers would want to do much more explicit world building in the first issue.Lullaby his wise of two keep the backstory to a minimum as the basic premise of the series is developed. The central characters in question are very appealing in and of themselves. And there's every reason to believe that the writer will continue to develop the backstory as progressed. It does actually seem pretty interesting.
There's more than enough on the page to really bring across everything that needs to happen. The action feels very well realized. The slow subtleties of the deeper drama and all level of style and nuance to the page. It all feels very well-rendered on quite a few different levels. The overall design of the world field very lived in. Very practical. There's a greatness about it, contrasts against some of the sleeper aspects of the sci-fi tech that Lullaby is bringing to the page.
The firmly established relationship between Ash and Loloi feels like it has potential to go somewhere. Ash isn’t the most talkative hero, but there's actually quite a bit of a appeal in that. It allows for a great degree of mystery with respect to him. Of course, any central character who is inherently mysterious is going to have problems moving forward if there isn't some very careful work done to develop his personality over the course of the first several issues of this se he's charming enough quiet. If he starts talking, things could get ugly in a hurry.
