Ignited #1 plants a flag for H1 Comics. It shows the line isn't afraid to touch upon real world issues. It shows it's not afraid to touch upon controversial issues and take a stand. This comic will piss a lot of people off for that. And they'll be the ones missing out and what is the beginning of an intriguing new world. Read Full Review

The last video I made was about Ignited the first offering by indie publisher H1. Ignited is written by Mark Waid in collaboration with Kwanza Osajyefo.

I wasn't too keen on the idea of a comic that uses school shootings as the launchpad for a superhero comic. Being objective though most of the clickbaity articles and videos online made the idea seem a lot worse than the book actually is. 

Is Ignited bad? Yes, yes it is. It the comic outright horrible? That will depend on your political leanings and what you consider entertainment when it comes to comic books. 

Ignited falls into a couple of traps that prevented me from enjoying it and most of it had nothing to do with the basic premise. 

The first issue I had immediately was the bland ass cover. If Karen's potato salad had a comic book cover equivalent it would be this one. Marvel gets away with bland pin-up covers because it's Marvel. The characters sell the book. Ignited isn't an established IP. Having a bland ho-hum cover that tells you nothing about what the series is about is unacceptable. In fact, I walked past the book 3 times before seeing it on the shelf. 

With the cover being so shockingly bad the only thing the book has to sell itself on is a divisive premise and the creative team. Mark and Kawanza are both divisive creators. This further splits the fanbase and potential audience for this book. If you aren't already fans of the creators and you aren't offended by books capitalizing on School shootings than I guess this is the book for you. 

Getting into the meat of the comic, The school shooting is not the inciting incident. People all over the world are getting superpowers for some reason. 

I forget the creator that said it but paraphrasing. The X-men was one of the laziest ideas ever because rather than come up with an origin you could always fall back on the characters just being born differently. I love the X-men but I understand the complaint. 

Ignited takes it a step further, the characters have powers because... Trump became president. Just Kidding but there isn't a compelling reason for the kids to have powers, they just do. 

The next issue with the comic is that the comic is going to be decompressed. I just reviewed Doug TenNapel's BigFoot Bill and one of the areas I praised it for was for telling a concise story with a beginning, middle and end point. 

Ignited feels like it should be either a graphic novel or a maxi-series at best. This is not a strong enough idea to warrant anything more than a couple of story arcs. 

The story is told in flashbacks. At one point in the issue we see the characters in the present using their powers but the bulk of the issue an is set in the past to presumably give our characters an origin. 

There is nothing wrong with an origin story especially for new characters but it's very annoying when Issue #1 ends and we're setting up the series. This is one of the biggest problems I have with the industry right now. Comics are way too expensive for comics to be this uneventful. Stuff happens, to be honest, it's not the most exciting and leads to my second biggest complaint. 

The political angle is too on the nose and hurts the narrative. The politics of the story is why I'm not picking up Ignited #2. The comic opens with an Alex Jones stand-in claiming that the school shooting was a hoax. 

The idea was offensive in real life and it just feels just as uncomfortable to read in comic. Not because it's offensive but because it's cringy AF.  

Alex Jones has been de-platformed in real life for his stupid remarks and was nearly universally condemned for his statements. In the comic's the lead characters actually blow the guy's house up. It's supposed to be a powerful opening statement about the characters but in reality, the sequence just feels weird. 

There isn't much action in the book in the book and the narrative isn't nuanced at all. If you're a left-leaning comic fan or a gun control advocate I can see parts of the book resonating with you but even then I can't see anyone getting entertainment value from this. 

This is often the case with left-leaning books. It's the same with Nitehawk from Marvel or Bordertown from DC Vertigo. There are ideas that could work but fall apart because the stories feel places the need to push political propaganda over actually telling a good story.  

I can't imagine a school shooting victim reading this and thinking hell yeah! this is empowering. It's not and feels more tone deaf than anything. 

A better Idea would have been to drop the fantastical elements altogether and have the kids work within the system to make a change. There were ways to make this idea work but Mark and Kawanza took the worst possible avenue they could come up with. 

The one positive aspect of the comic is the art from Phil Briones. I'm not familiar with his work but the comic looks great. I'm interested in seeing more from him but even his work can't overcome the flaws in the premise and execution of ignited. This is the last 3.99 that this series will get from me. 

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