The Edge #1 - Second Sight Publishing

THE EDGE No. 1, March 2021

Splitting its action into three distinctly discernible subdivisions, Marvin Wynn’s narrative for Issue One of “The Edge” certainly supplies it audience with a cavalcade of conflict, both physical and emotional. For whilst the super-sized thirty-two page periodical contains plenty of the brutal pulse-pounding batterings a bibliophile might expect from a publication “about super-humans who use a drug which gives them amazing powers”, it also seemingly touches upon the regrets held by the team’s commander, Mister Tartabull, when it comes to his past failings as their leader; “Somehow, our control over the experiment slipped away from us becoming something none of us even imagined. It’s something I’ve had to live with to this very day.”

These self-doubts immediately help create an extra element of vulnerability to the man’s latest mission to safely resolve a hostage situation in San Diego, as well as increase the tension generated by Interim as she stealthily infiltrates the dilapidated block of flats being utilised by a group of 'psycho terrorists'. Having previously failed in developing the somewhat homicidal Revenant into a ‘force for good’, it is clear that Tartabull is fallible, so there is always a chance that one (or more) of his current team of heroes might also prove unreliable when faced with a particular crisis. 

Similarly as intriguing is Wynn’s well-penned introduction of this comic’s large cast of characters. The author wastes little time by literally throwing the reader straight into the deep-end of the action with Interim’s aforementioned penetration of a multi-tenant building, and subsequently utilises the support the purple-clad, portal-manipulator enjoys from her squad-mates to bring each member’s unique skills to the fore.

Likewise, Mark Louie Vuycankiat does an excellent job with his pencils and inks of bringing this glimpse of the Freedomverse to sense-shattering life. The early, extremely violent death of Doctor Blas at the hands of a clearly ill-thinking Revenant sets a high standard for drama which continues throughout the entirety of the book, and such incidents as the artist’s attention to detail when Mystic saves Interim’s life from a gun-toting occultist, repeatedly help show just how deadly the world within which the protagonists inhabit, can be.

Writer/Creator: Marvin Wynn, and Pencils & Inks: Mark Louie Vuycankiat