Shatterstar #1 (of 5) Review

Writer: Tim Seeley

Penciler: Carlos Villa

Inker: Juan Vlasco

Flashback Art: Gerardo Sandoval

Color Artist: Carlos Lopez

Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit

Published by: Marvel Comics

For the second time ever, Shatterstar gets a starring turn (no pun intended) in his own mini-series and Tim Seeley’s take is, well, a lot different than what you may know Shatterstar as.

Being a character steeped in 90s excess - I mean, swords, pouches, big hair, and a look that resembled enough of Longshot to start a legion of fan-theories with answers coming in X-Factor #259, Shatterstar hasn’t always had the best of years. However, in Peter David’s second run on X-Factor almost a decade ago (how time flies), we got to see deeper characterization of the character than we had ever seen before.

And this, I believe, is the basis of Seeley’s first issue: to continue to explore Shatterstar, away from his old X-Factor/X-Force teammates and see what makes him who is in the present.

The story structure works really well for a first issue of a mini-series. Seeley establishes from the beginning the current state of Shatterstar’s life as well as giving us some background information on who he was during his time in Mojoworld. From there, we get introduced to the disturbing force that will lead to the read of the series and how that force is linked to Shatterstar’s past. Maybe a little cliche, but it’s an effective literary tool, so why not?  

To balance the flashback/present dynamic, the series wisely decides to use two different artists. The fact that Villa and Sandoval have widely different styles does help in allowing the reader to truly know the different scenarios. However, to the casual viewer, I understand that the two styles may be too different and may turn them off.

This is probably one of the stronger debut issues to a mini-series I’ve seen n the past few months since it checks all the boxes of having a good premise, a good explanation of the current state of the protagonist, and a good introduction of the antagonist for the series.