Image credit: Jason Brown, midlifegamergeek.com
Aiden Mitchell has revenge on his mind. He returns to the famous Crimson Bay after 25 years to defeat the man who killed his father.
Crimson Bay #1 is an adrenaline-pumping love letter to classic arcade fighting and fighting games. At first glance, it’s a highly stylized revenge movie in comic book form, but the influences and homages to Capcom and SNK’s various series (Street Fighter, Final Fight, and Fighting Games immediately come to mind) are immediately obvious from the cover. And look at this awesome, very arcadey logo.
What’s more, writer Bruno Catalino does a great job capturing the melodramatic tone of the cutscene lore, not to mention the ground-shaking, fireball-throwing super moves that are unleashed during battle.
The video game homage tone is not only ideally reflected in the script, but also in Samuel Donato’s flawless artwork. Stoic characters are in the midst of high drama and explosive combat, beautifully rendered in classic Japanese arcade style.
Anyone who knows me knows exactly how much I love Capcom’s Street Fighter and Final Fight games. I’m also a big fan of Udon’s multiple long-running comic series based on these titles, but Crimson Bay seems to scratch exactly the same itch, hitting the right tone as well, and has gorgeous art to boot.
I was confused at least once early on about how the main character, Aiden, visualizes a particular character while facing (and talking about) another character. But overall, the clarity of the storytelling was great and I was immediately drawn into his (literal) fight for justice. The initial confusion also makes sense later in the problem.
On the evidence of this first issue alone, Crimson Bay seems targeted exactly to my tastes. I thought it was an action-packed, beautifully crafted thrill ride. Consider me obsessed.
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