Comic Book Review - The Anomaly Squad
Rob reviews 'The Anomaly Squad' by Luke Halsall...
'The Anomaly Squad' tells its tale in the aftermath of an event which sees the world's superheroes vanish in an instant. All except one team...The Anomaly Squad.
Now this band of Misfits are tasked with finding out who's behind the disappearance and hopefully bringing the heroes back to this world. But of course, things rarely go to plan.
Making up The Anomaly Squad are quite an interesting bunch of "heroes" that don't conform to any of your typical stereotypes. The squad is made up of a vampire who's the complete opposite of how vampires are perceived, a guy who's stuck in the 90s, another who's living in a 1930's silent movie, a gun-toting psycho, and a human-sized sentient rubber duck. As you can imagine, this comic isn't particularly serious, but it is quite a read!
The story itself is a great mixture of action and comedy with some serious tones underneath. While the characters do seem a little absurd, Halsall does hint at some underlining issues underneath the team's overall dynamic. While it's not fully explored within this issue, there's enough groundwork to continue this theme in the future. When 'The Anomaly Squad' does its comedy, it does it quite well. There are a lot of laughs out loud moments, with honourable mentions going out to "The Networker", "That 90's Guy", and "Franco".
While the whole issue does feel like an early 'Deadpool' strip mixed in with a pinch of 'The Suicide Squad', Halsall balances it all well. There's plenty of world-building as we get a small glimpse of the other superheroes before the blip, as well as the very dysfunctional family feeling of the AS. There's certainly a lot here to explore within future issues, and I'd personally like to see the other weird and wonderful heroes that inhabited this world.
Art comes from Jim Lavery who fills this book with some simple yet detailed work that oozes the personality of Halsall's characters and their world. It's a real testament to Lavery too as he manages to make a rubber duck full of emotion! Colourwork is also spot on with plenty of vibrant colours mixed in with a more subdued palette.
The standout scene for me is the ones that feature Monochrome. These take on...well a monochrome style which helps capture the greatness of the silent movie era - as well as Monochrome's unique talents. Likewise with each character we get little bits of detail that all play into their unique traits.
When it's said and done, 'The Anomaly Squad' is a great comic for those wanting a break from the traditional superhero norm. From reading this you can see that Luke Halsall has had inspiration from the likes of 'Deadpool', 'The Suicide Squad', 'The Tick', and many other Saturday morning superhero cartoons. While its humour does run the show in a few places, come to the conclusion and everything comes together within a surprisingly tight story that makes this one such an enjoyable read!
Rating: 8/10
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Rob Lake - For more comic book and video game chat why not follow Geek Culture Reviews on Twitter and Facebook @GeekCultureRev
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