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Twilight Guardian #1 – Review

Twilight Guardian is the most realistic take on a masked vigilante living in the real world. Forget Kick-Ass, for as much as it did Kick-Ass still fell into the same pitfalls of any other comic. Twilight Guardian on the other hand is completely different. Our main character is an unknown woman that patrols a nine block radius in her own neighborhood. She has different routes and routines to throw off anyone from figuring out her routine, but what she doesn't have is a villain.

That's where the issue begins with our Guardian getting ready for the nights patrol. She wears black pants, a bluish hoodie and arms herself with a roll of quarters and a brass knuckle with spikes. It seems that someone has been attacking people in the area that she patrols for almost two months now, but she's always been in the wrong place to catch them. The newspapers dub the attacker the "Dusk Devil" since they only attack after the sun sets. As she prepares for patrol she wonders if she will finally meet her arch foe, her Moriarty, her Orange Ogre the Dusk Devil.

After finishing her nightly ritual of reading a comic before patrol, she heads out to protect her neighborhood. After observing a neighbor she comes across a man standing at the far end of the street. She's seen the man times before, but because he stays out of her jurisdiction she just stares at him standing across the street. The night ends with her falling asleep and heading home.

Twilight Guardian 1 CoverThe next day she decides she needs closure on her break up with John, her ex-boyfriend. She heads over to his house and knocks on his door for over a half an hour. As she's leaving some police officers pull up to check the house as well. It seems that John hasn't shown up for work in a few days and the neighbors heard a commotion a few days prior. She struggles to be normal and not shift into her Twilight Guardian role and help the officers in any way possible.

There is basically no dialog for this entire issue and that amazes me. You never once "hear" the character talk. Everything that you have to base her character from is her narration which is great, but also misleading. We're only allowed into her head and without hearing from an outside source you have no idea if what she's saying is actually fact; you're just forced to take it as such. The brilliance of the story is that you have no idea if this person you're following is crazy. There are hints of the possibility of her having some sort of mental problem as evident by the big bottle of prescription pills she has. Then there's the fact that she basically never sleeps and is probably delusional from exhaustion, but these are both things that you have to read into the story to find.

Twilight Guardian is one of the winners of Top Cow's Pilot season and is written by Troy Hickman. Hickman does a great job of not only holding the readers interest with the narration, but also grabbing their attention with it as well. At first you'll probably think, "is this it?" but upon reading further you be left with the sensation of waiting for the other shoe to drop. In a weird way I would have to equate it to the same feeling that reading Cyclops instills, when you get to the end you're not expecting to be left in the story where you are. Personally I love reading comics that are like that since it leaves you thinking and dwelling upon the story waiting for the next chapter.

In what's become pretty typical for Pilot Season the artist has changed from the pilot issue. Fans of the issue might miss Reza, but personally I think Sid Kotain does a great job of taking the character and making it his own. Even though the Twilight Guardian prances around in her underwear and knee high socks while in the comfort of her own home, there's nothing overtly sexual about it. Kotain in a way is allowing the reader to gaze into her world and it almost feels like we're invading her privacy. His line work is very good as he puts the Guardian in wide variety of positions more than likely to quell his own boredom. He also has a great range of style as the comics the Guardian reads become part of the issue as well. He captures the golden age of comics in layout and style while making it fit in with the rest of the issue.

Overall I have to say this is the most impressive Pilot Season title I've read from Top Cow and I almost feel that they should have lost that banner before publishing the book. What I really enjoyed about the title is the fact that it so very different from anything else Top Cow is putting out at the moment and different from the usual tights and capes books. Twilight Guardian is definitely a book work checking out and unlike usual Top Cow books it's actually being put out on time. Upon completion of this review the second issue is already in my hand. This is a great issue and I have to say I highly recommend checking it out.

Overall Score - 8.9/10

 
Rating
8.9

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