Nov 30, 2021
Home Sick Pilots is a good mash-up of the horror genre with Power Rangers, though it does favor the plot over some of the characters.
The book begins in medias res, where a battle takes place between two unknown entities, before flashing back to a few weeks prior to introduce to us the main characters: Ami, Buzz and Rip, who make up the titular band of the Home Sick Pilots. After escaping the police for attending a concert on private property, Ami suggests that they should have their own concert in the Old James House, a building that has some dark history and involves a few corpses. After sneaking inside and being confronted by rival band The Nuclear Bastards, the house decides to make its sentience known to the intruders by killing the
leader of the Bastards and trapping Ami and another member of The Nuclear Bastards, Meg, inside itself. Buzz and Rip manage to escape and while the former believes that the duo should go back to rescue their fellow bandmate, the latter decides to believe that they can't do anything for her and just throws in the towel after failing to get a policeman to help. Meanwhile, the house decides to start using Ami for its own purposes as it sends her out to retrieve various objects that have ghosts tied to them as said ghosts had died in the house prior to the story and the house wants them back, with Ami being given some powers by the haunted house to make her new task easier. These objects also have special powers because of their ghostly possession, which is used to good effect in two instances of the book.
The narrative doesn't focus too much on Ami collecting the ghosts since by the third issue, she's nearly gotten all of them. We only see her retrieve two of the six ghosts in issues two and four, with the remaining four being acquired off-panel. What could've been interesting confrontations is now left to our imagination and it feels like wasted potential. There's also a faction that seeks out the Old James House for their own reasons and they have a paranormal ally that can, for the most part, hold its own against whatever Ami throws at it, leading to the equivalent of a Megazord battle during the fifth issue. The faction also has plans for Meg, with the final page teasing a confrontation with a new, powerful weapon that made me intrigued enough to consider buying the next volume. The music aspect of the book isn't particularly vital, as the Pilots aren't seen performing save for one flashback sequence. The Nuclear Bastards are seen performing in the beginning and one panel shows an unknown band playing at a party but besides that, the music part of this books isn't vital to the story besides the fact that the main characters are in a band. The story can be a little slow in parts of the book, seeing as more attention is given to the other Pilots and not when Ami is off ghost hunting in issue two and and part of issue three. Thankfully, the latter half of the third issue escalates the action and nothing feels boring in the last two issues as it sets up and pulls off a good conclusion to this first story arc.
Character wise, Ami is given the most focus, seeing as she's the narrator of the story. Ami has an unfortunate backstory, with her being a foster child after some unknown, tragic event happened to kill her mother when she was little. This event also caused her to be seen as a psychopath in the eyes of many people. She's portrayed as being rather naive, as she believes that the house has good intentions for the ghosts that she retrieves for it. Because of her backstory, she sees the Old James House in a misunderstood, but good light, as an entity that just wants its ghosts back inside of itself and sees the spirits inside as lonely and afraid. The way she behaves towards her friends in the fifth issue causes Rip to call her insane, with lines now drawn in the sand between them. Her actions support Rip's claim, due to Ami causing destruction to their hometown in order to save her friends. Not only that, she seems to immediately go along with what the Old James House want her to do, initially not showing it much resistance despite seeing it murder someone. That question of whether or not she's in her right mind is an interesting one and it intrigues me. There's enough characterization for her to not come off as bland, though I do wish we got some more, like how she's dealing with her mother's death after all these years.
Her friends, however, aren't fleshed out as much. Buzz and Rip aren't given enough characterization since Ami and the fight scenes are given more focus. All we know about Rip is that he does drugs, gives up on finding Ami, hangs out with some street punks that enjoy shouting "Oi! Oi!" and thinks Ami's gone crazy near the end of the book. I can understand not wanting to go back into a sentient murder house, but I'm not convinced these two are through and through buddies. Buzz is the opposite, never giving up on saving her and sticking with her towards the end of this first story arc. He does play a crucial role when the house sends him off to rescue her when things go sideways in issue four, wherein his transformation and subsequent usage of his power is rather entertaining. Besides that, there's nothing else to be said. Meg is, for the most part, forgotten up until issue four's last page. She meets up with the other characters in the last chapter and helps them get to the Old James House and the ending teases that she'll have an important role to play in the next volume, with a time skip of three months hinting that she's gotten some control over the powers she's gained. It'll be interesting to see what she does in the next volume, but in this first arc, her role in the story is rather miniscule up until the end.
The Old James House is depicted as a malevolent entity to the reader with a hidden agenda that has yet to be revealed. It doesn't seem too keen on letting anyone it has in its grip go and will manipulate itself and its new tenant to ensure that the latter never leaves. Ami compares it to an unfaithful lover when she discovers just what the house has been hiding from her and this is a good way of looking at it since many people manipulate the people in their life for their own gain and to ensure that their partner never leaves them. The house is a fascinating aspect of the book and discovering what its goals are is something to look forward to in future installments. The way it kills unwanted guests is gory and appropriate for a haunted house, using piping and parts of its walls in order to take someone's life. Its paranormal inhabitants also make the home much more eerie for readers and it certainly feels like an oppressive and malignant entity thanks to the colors used for the artwork.
The book showcases two brief flashbacks: the first showing us the day Ami first became acquainted with Buzz and Rip after she tries and fails to balance on a power line, resulting in Buzz swooping in to break her fall. She's invited to join a band the boys are forming after they insult the choice of band she listens to. The second flashback shows us their first concert together wherein they perform abysmally in front of a crowd. These looks into their past are supposed to show us that the Home Sick Pilots care for each other and have each others backs, being friends and all, but the actions of Rip giving up so soon when it comes to rescuing Ami fails to convince me that these two are friends. In Buzz's case, the friendship he has with Ami is believable since he immediately tries to rescue her from the Old James House.
The artwork sells the tone of the story well. Hues of red, purple, black, pink and blue are used to enhance the horror vibe of the book. Very rarely are lighter colors used, with their usage being relegated to panels that are set at daytime. Character designs for most of the humans is decent, making most of them look like ordinary folks you'd see in everyday life. In Ami's case, her powers cause her hair to turn white in color and she glows when using them. The ghost designs are somewhat better, with one being completely covered in black and having a noose around its neck and another being composed of the tape from a VHS. Besides those two, the other spectres seen aren't noteworthy, with one of them wearing a literal lampshade over its head, another simply being a young child wearing a mask and another having a horseshoe FOR a head. The ghosts aren't really interesting design wise, though they play a crucial role in the end. The "Power Rangers" part of the story sees Ami, Buzz and one human enemy transforming in this volume and it feels underutilized here since that enemy doesn't last long in the proceeding fight, so here's hoping we see more people transforming into crazy monster forms in the future. Buzz's transformation when he goes to retrieve Ami is a definite highlight of the book as he manages to easily distinguish himself. He definitely looks like a rock monster that can take some damage and dish it out while in a battle. The Megazord for the book is also appropriate for what the book is doing and its design makes sense in the context of the story. Overall, the designs for the characters don't stand out, with some exceptions in parts of the story.
Home Sick Pilots is a good start to a horror version of Power Rangers. The story can get slow up until the third issue and two of the characters aren't very compelling, but it's still an enjoyable read with plenty of its aspects hooking into you to ensure that you'll want to pick up volume two. more
