REFLECTION: Bleak Tomorrow’s Detective Tale Of Visceral Noir is a new gripping Aces Weekly comic, by Jok and Santullo, and it scores a 10/10 in our POWkabam Review.

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REFLECTION is battered around the edges in all the right ways.

The artwork, writing, and storytelling provide an otherworldly experience, while still being tied to the darkest aspects of our present world.

And there is nothing like the art in REFLECTION!

Jok and Santullo’s unique style was evident in Aces Weekly Volume 34’s “Merlin and Hector – Excalibur”, which provided a magically fantastical landscape for an Arthurian tale in the Dark Ages.

But REFLECTION is a step into darker puddles, messy cityscapes and a realistic neo-future that emanates the best of detective mystery crime stories with a hint of Philip K. Dick and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner thrown in.

The degradation of the setting only magnifies the violence and emotions of the characters living in the world.

The following review of REFLECTION, from Aces Weekly Volume 39, will contain mild Spoilers*, but since the serial book has not released its finale on Aces Weekly, what is sure to be a compelling ending is wholly absent here.

We start with a grizzled Detective Reynoso is panting as the middle-aged vet searches frantically through a garbage-strewn alley, his handgun – a massive mix of a giant barrel and rifle – is drawn.

Sweat beads on his head.

The heavy breaths are emphasized with both visuals and lettering.

An oddly shaped machete pierces the seasoned, alarmed man wearing a trench coat, and stops him dead.

The woman, who had risen silently from a dumpster, forced her blade through his back and out his chest.

The next day, the detective’s old partner, a tall, foul-mouthed, gray-haired cop named Walsh barges onto the murder scene and refuses the order and rule to not work on a case for conflict of interests.

The red-headed woman, Baffo, and her lanky partner, Kirby, are the detectives put in charge of the case.

She is silent as they purvey the scene.

The night before her phone woke her from a nightmare.

In that dream, she had been the one murdering Reynoso in the rain with a machete, and upon waking her reflection seems to haunt her.

Her odd silence is even noted by her partner as they work.

The story provides many traditional film noir and detective crime tropes and fun.

In terms of quips, threats, and heads being slammed into tables as a method to coax information about the murder from slimy criminals, the reader is fed hard-boiled-ness.

The use of language and art to show the emotion, in fury, fear, and puzzlement on the part of the nervous potential murderer in Baffo makes for a truly impactful experience.

REFLECTION is riveting and does not stop to pump the brakes on the intensity!

POWKABAM Score For REFLECTION = 10/10

  • Writing: 10
  • Art: 10
  • Dialogue: 10
  • Innovation: 10
  • Intrigue: 10

“REFLECTION: Bleak Tomorrow’s Detective Tale Of Visceral Noir” was written by R.J. Huneke.

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