In The Local Pocket #8 - Collateral - Dear John Issue #1

Collateral - Dear John #1 Vacant City

Collateral - Dear John is written by Matt Nicholls and illustrated by Lee Taylor and self published. Everybody loves superheroes and everybody wants to live in a world with superheroes flying through the skies and defeating the bad guys. It sounds great to live in a world with superpowers if you are one of the superheroes saving the day and involved in the action, It sounds a lot less fun if you were just a regular person who's life is constantly being interrupted and endangered by these Superheroes.

Collateral begins with an incredibly violent depiction of a child being gruesomely crushed as they watch a superhero fight a villain above the city. It turns out that this is a PSA commercial warning civilians that if there is a super powered battle around they should flee for their own safety. A young man named Scott shuts off the TV in disgust while his mother, Mary, warns him that paying attention to those PSAs could save his life one day. Mary's husband, John, soon arrives home and walks straight to the bedroom without uttering a single word. Mary goes to check and John admits that once again he is unemployed. John has not lost his job because he is a poor worker, had a disagreement with his boss or because the company is downsizing, John has lost his job because a Super Villain destroyed the building he worked in. This is not the first time John has been unemployed due to the damage and mayhem caused by those with super powers.

Aww is this going to be a superhero co-OH MY GOD!!

Collateral is done entirely in fine black lines and has a sketchy look which is an interesting style although it does make it a little difficult to tell certain characters apart at a glance. Collateral has no colour other than the extremely bright red of the blood in the opening pages but the most eye catching feature is by far the paper. Collateral is not on plain white background but rather the background has a yellow weathered appearance that makes me think of an old dilapidated building. The background is by far the most striking feature of this comic and coupled with the sketchy art gives Collateral an incredibly unique style and makes it a visual delight.

We don't learn much about John, Mary and their three children Scott, James and Timmy but we do learn a lot about their relationships with each other which is what grabs the reader in the first issue. Mary seems like the average wife and mother trying to make the best out of a bad situation doing her best to reassure her husband and sons that everything will be okay despite their hardships. Something that I love about the character of Mary is that she is oddly concerned about her family swearing and constantly tells them off for it. At first I thought this was an odd choice but as I reread the comic it is a great example of how Mary is trying to keep life normal for her family as they have so many worse problems than foul language yet its still a way for her to keep things together. John is a man clearly pushed to the brink and desperate to make ends meet for his family in the face of constant and uncontrollable set backs.

The concept of people dealing with the aftermath of superhero collateral damage is an idea that has been done before but usually from a comedic angle. Collateral - Dear John takes an emotional angle from the first issue and if the tone of the first issue is anything to go by it promises to be an emotional ride.

I give Collateral - Dear John 3 out of 5 crisis moments

Find out more about Collateral - Dear John here and read it online here.