The Recount #1 - Scout Comics

THE RECOUNT No. 1, November 2020

Absolutely packed full of political intrigue, gruesome assassinations, and a ton of treachery, Jonathan Hedrick’s script for Issue One of “The Recount” must surely have caused this comic’s readership to be constantly second-guessing just who the Vice President of the United States of America could actually trust during his narrative’s distinctly trying times. Indeed, the script for this twenty-four page periodical arguably conveys such a disconcerting sense of governmental sedition and suspicion, that it is hard not to draw an analogy for this modern-day storyline with that of the ambiguity surrounding the deaths of John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby back in the early Sixties.

For starters, impeached President Anthony Christensen’s cold-blooded murder just as the Commander-in-Chief was publically resigning from his great office, is immediately followed by both the killing of the vacating leader’s hit man and his would-be saviour’s instant arrest for shooting the traitorous Agent Ischy “instead of tackling him.” Such a flurry of deaths, allegations and insinuations immediately brings every character’s motivations into question, and even implies that the interrogator interviewing Agent Simon Kanaan believes that his prisoner only shot his target so quickly because he knew beforehand what the rogue secret service operative was about to do.

Likewise, the Vice President is very quick to question both the loyalty and competence of her entire circle of closest advisors. This atmosphere of distrust is genuinely palpable, and increasingly builds throughout the publication as more murders follow. In fact, by the time the sheer scale of the mass conspiracy is finally revealed “by a group calling themselves The Masses”, it would be blatantly clear to all but the most naively-minded perusing bibliophile that, with the possible exception of quick-drawing bodyguard Bree Barto, no-one within the White House should probably be  trusted; “Christensen wasn’t alone in his crimes. He may have given the order to send young men and women overseas to an unnecessary war. But that was with the people whispering in his ear. They pushed their own agendas and used him like a puppet. Those who could gain from his position orchestrated the corruption.”  

Helpfully stoking the fires of Hedrick’s disconcerting national nightmare are Gabriel Ibarra-Nunez’s excellent layouts, which go a long way to adding plenty of pace to some shockingly violent scenes and harrowingly tense confrontations. The Chilean artist’s sense of timing with the frequency and shape of his panels is perfect for conveying the mistrust pervading from this comic’s considerably-sized cast, with Kanaan’s bloody rescue from "an undisclosed location" proving especially well-plotted and pencilled.

Writer: Jonathan Hedrick, Artist: Gabriel Ibarra-Nunez, and Colorist: Sunil Ghagre