Comic Book Review - Primos #1

Rob reviews Primos #1...

Primos is an all-new Latinx Superhero comic that's been written by Al Madrigal and published by AWA (Artists, Writers & Artisans). The comic, which features an all Latinx line-up brings together three distant cousins who are all bound by an ancient Mayan lineage. While they are all bound by their past to save the present, our heroes are scattered across Central and North America. And they've never met each other. 

The premise to Primos is quite an interesting one. In the distant past, two Mayan brothers are sent into space due to their civilisation receiving a message from their God's. This message turns out to be the plans for a spacecraft with instructions to travel to a place called "The Nexus of Worlds". Once the brothers arrive they're greeted by their God who happens to be...yup, an alien. It's here where we learn that great power is spreading through the Universe, and eats entire worlds! 

To contain this threat the brothers - and Mayan representatives from countless other worlds - are tasked with bringing enlightenment to their respective civilisations. As such this will unify all the planets so the big evil can't devour them. Truly, both brothers bicker over how to best achieve this goal. While King Janaab favours a peaceful approach, his brother Kan opts to use brute force. In typical fashion, the two argue over the best cause of action which results in their spacecraft taking a pretty long diversion home. Arriving back on Earth in 2022, Janaab and Kan are presented with the long since the destruction of their race. Now, Kan, who's described as a "Mexican Thanos" wants to destroy the world so Janaab sets off to recruit his descendants to fight him...

With creating a new comic series the opening issue can go one of two ways. You'll either have an exposition filled issue that crams plenty of world-building and past events at you. Or you'll get one where everything comes at you at a pace with no explanation as to what's going on. Thankfully Al Madrigal uses this opening issue to give us plenty of both. There's an abundance of world-building which dives into the current predicament of Ricky as he learns about his destiny, as well as both the past events, and something yet to come. 

While we're yet to be properly introduced to the mysterious Javier (total badass btw), and Gina, we do spend a lot of time with Ricky - who happens to be the youngest of the group. Madrigal gives us plenty of comedy and pop culture references as Ricky uses humour and his adolescence to deal with the situations that he finds himself in. There are a lot of great moments such as Ricky referring to Kan as a "Mexican Thanos" as well as calling one of Kan's men a "huge WWE fucker". It does well to show a teenagers side of things, yet doesn't dumb the script down too much.

Backing-up Al Madrigal is artist, Carlo Barberi and colourist, Brian Reber. There's a lot to like here as the duo put in a superb effort to bring the story to life. Each scene is packed with plenty of detail as Barberi utilises various angles and styles to keep everything moving. Whilst Reber uses quite a varied colour scheme to show off different perspectives and the shift in time. 

As openings go, Primos is off to a flying start. Madrigal gives plenty of rope to get us interested within his story, yet keeps the bulk of it firmly within his grasp. While this is a more exposition filled issue, it has quite a pace to it which allows for events to sink in but doesn't dwell on them. What action we do see does a great job in teasing what's to come and allows Barberi to show us what this new superhero team are made of. 

Rating 8/10 

Rob Lake - For more comic book and video game chat why not follow Geek Culture Reviews on Twitter and Facebook @GeekCultureRev