The Silencer #1 –
DC Comics
Written by John Romita Jr. & Dan Abnett
Inks by Sandra Hope
Colors by Dean White
Letters by Tom Napolitano
One thing that I have said for a while on our podcast, and in conversations with my fellow nerd friends, is that I’d like to see the “Big 2” create some new characters every now and then. Not just for an arc, but give them a chance at sustained success. DC Comics has done a pretty good job with that recently, especially coming out of the pages of Dark Nights Metal. Let’s continue that this week by talking about The Silencer.
The story revolves around Honor Guest, a seemingly normal woman with a seemingly normal life. Problem is, it’s comics and that’s very rarely the case. Honor used to be a part of something much more intense and is really hoping to just live out the rest of her life with her family. I don’t think I need to say spoiler alert before I tell you that’s not going to happen. We find out why she is called The Silencer, and I must say it’s a pretty cool ability. You get the sense reading this issue that we’re barely scratching the surface of it too, so that’s quite interesting. Even though she is new to us, someone shows up in this issue that DC fans should be VERY familiar with. I won’t spoil who it is or why they show up, but it is essentially where the backstory ends and the rest of the story begins. We get a pretty amazing action sequence at the end, plus a reveal that almost made me drop my tablet and cheer.
It’s hard to hide it, I loved everything about this book. I was instantly drawn in by the Honor character, her toughness and her will to do anything for her family. Then you see her “other side” and it instantly doubles that. I’m not sure who did the heavy lifting on the scripts here, but the team of Romita Jr. and Abnett worked so well here. I’d really like to see them team up even more in the future. The art time joining Romita Jr. also did a fantastic job, with a big tip of the cap to Dean White for really making those “super” moments pop even more. When creating a new character, I need a reason to care about them and a reason to care about why they are here. I was given both of those things, and then some. To me, this felt so different for DC, and I mean that as a compliment. I love a lot of what is going on in DC right now, but there is nothing wrong with having a change of pace. It’s going to be hard to stay quiet about The Silencer, because I feel like this is a character that can really take off. You will not be disappointed when you give this book a chance.
RATING: PULL / BUY