V.E. Schwab's ExtraOrdinary #1

V.E. Schwab’s ExtraOrdinary #001

Titan Comics 2021

Written by V.E. Schwab

Illustrated by Enid Balám

Coloured by Leonardo Olea

Lettered by Jordi Escuin Llorach

After surviving a deadly crash, Charlotte Tills becomes “ExtraOrdinary”, gaining the ability to foresee a person’s death. But when she looks into her own future, only the face of notorious EO killer Eli Ever stares back!

What a spectacular and intriguing issue this is. The opening is a great fight scene that doesn’t really tell us much other than the two guys fighting know one another. This leads us to the past and how the two met and their relationship over the years. It also goes into the idea of EO’s or ExtraOrdinary’s, those with powers and abilities that folks gain when they die and come back from the dead. In the zero issue we met Charlotte who has visions of the future that’s her gift and this issue well it’s a completely different experience. One of the things about this that I really like is that while it has familiar elements to it and in some way it feels like Flatliners in how it comes across the similarities end when they gain their powers though the horrors continue.

I am 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 is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see is extraordinary thanks to the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story, introducing the characters and the world they live in so that we are captivated by the events we see.

I’m impressed with the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge, grow and evolve. It is in the layers where we see the bulk of the characterisation and how this impacts the main arc or just swirls around it. Either way these bits add so much depth 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 is beautifully achieved.

The interiors here are very stylised and rather quite nice to see. The linework is fantastic and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail work is stupendous. I will say this I wish that shower scene was so steam strategic, i mean it is just his buttocks and i’d have loved to see how nice that arse really is. We see backgrounds utilised extremely well throughout the book as they enhance the moments as well as seeing how they work within the composition of the panels bringing us the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a marvellous eye for storytelling. The colour work is extraordinary to see. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is beautifully rendered. I have to say that seeing the blood and and the refection in it is absolutely gorgeous and that lightning really pops and it shows someone with a stellar eye for how colour works.

Eli might think they are abominations at this point and I’d be interested in seeing what happened to him while he was dead that so drastically changed his personality. Some of these EO’s, probably most if not all others, were in accidents that they were saved and brought back from death and why he feels they need to be dealt with is something I hope we’re going to see explored further. He has set himself up as judge, jury and executioner and no matter how he feels no one has the right to do that.

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This is extremely well written with some intense characterisation and utterly delightful interiors that will make you see life and death differently from here on out.