NYX #1

NYX #01

Dynamite Entertainment 2021

Written by Christos Gage

Illustrated by Marc Borstel

Coloured by Jordi Escuin Llorach

Lettered by Taylor Esposito

From the pages of Vampirella and Sacred Six comes Nyx, daughter of a human and the mad god Chaos himself! Nyx's mortal side has been growing stronger, troubling her with all-too human emotions. Fortunately (for her), there's still the side of her that transforms into a demon of living flame...and requires her to feed on the life force of living beings to survive.

Can a half-demon find her place in our world...happiness...even love? Probably not, as she’s about to get dragged into her dad’s workplace problem.

Nyx isn’t someone I know a lot about so I was looking forward to this so I could see just what it is she’s about. We’re not disappointed in this regard either as right away we see Nyx in action and as she’s going about her business it sets up the next segment. It really does have a great flow to this that feels like a natural progression. I do have one question that I’ve noticed so why is it that the women always feel like their human side is their weaker side? If they allow it their human side could be their strongest asset instead of something to complain about. Just something I’ve noticed.

I’m very much enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information are presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a marvellous job in establishing their personalities. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages introducing us to the characters, the story and their world it leaves us wanting to see and know more.

I’m liking the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story begin to emerge and grow. I also like how we see the layers within the story opening up new avenues to be explored and while they won’t all be they all do add some great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward are impeccably achieved.

I’m loving the interior artwork here. I will say this right off the bat, we don’t see enough backgrounds in use. What we get is phenomenal so it’s no wonder I want to see those blanks filled in, they enhance and expand the moments beautifully. They also work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. Can I say the attention to detail we see is utterly phenomenal and those three in the kitchen sum it all up perfectly and it is by god it’s glorious to see. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkable eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a stellar eye for how colour works.

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Such a strong debut and it really brings us a sense of who she is. While I may not have an inkling of the story that’s going to unfold next it doesn’t really matter because if the level & quality of storytelling is going to continue to be this good I’m in. Also a huge shout-out to Taylor here for the lettering because I like how the demons got different lettering and how it made them across was totally awesome thanks to the choices made. With some strong solid writing and interesting characterisation alongside these brilliantly rendered interiors Nyx can proudly take her place alongside the strong women of Dynamite.