From the creative pair of Curt Pires and musician Franklin Jonas & artist Patrick Mulholland comes an edgy-fantasy throwback to comics of the 90’s with Fireborn #1. Featuring color art by Mark Dale and lettering by Micah Myers, this opening issue throws readers right into the action with a style that is a mix of classic TMNT, Highlander, and that very era of Image books. With a suitably campy script and high-octane, incredibly well-drawn action, Fireborn is a must for fans of that classic 90’s edge.
“Aaron Hillburg was just another rich-kid failson—ghosting his responsibilities, hopping rooftops, and hating his billionaire father in peace… until a mysterious floating dragon egg bonds to him and ignites a hidden lineage of ancient magic inside his body. Now every violent outlaw wizard, biker cultist, and supernatural warlord between New York City and The World Beneath is hunting him—and they’ll burn the world down to pry the egg from his corpse.”
Writing & Plot
From the word “go,” it’s abundantly clear what Curt Pires is trying to accomplish with his script for Fireborn #1. Aaron Hillburg’s story is one we’ve seen a thousand times before – a rich kid with a chip on his shoulder and an asshole dad stumbles upon something that gives him an immense amount of unnatural power. In this case, it’s a dragon egg that covers him in kickass fantasy power armor. Doing so ties him up in web that includes dimension-hopping hunters seeking the same egg for nefarious reasons that are not yet explained in this first chapter. As stated before, you aren’t seeing anything here story-wise that you haven’t seen before. Rarely, however, does this sort of story come dripping with this kind of attitude. Where much of the story feels like it would go off in a softer YA direction, Pires takes off towards the angsty peaks of 90’s era image comic books. Every line of Aaron’s dialogue is filled to the brim with sarcasm and adolescent moodiness, and it intentionally pushes him towards feeling like a fish out of water here – like someone snuck My Chemical Romance into a playlist filled with Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. We don’t get much of the villains here, and everything does feel a bit cookie cutter. However, there’s plenty of room for Pires to show us around and introduce us to more of this lore as the fantastical dragon fighting continues.
Art Direction
What really drives Fireborn #1 forward is the visual work from Patrick Mulholland and Mark Dale. Mulholland’s pencils harken back to the age of McFarlane and Lee, but with a unique vision that is all his own. His design work on the fantasy elements and Aaron’s armor is, in critical terms, cool as hell, while the rest of his character and environmental detail fully fleshes out the world of Fireborn. His framing for the action sequences, as well as the choreography and design of the set pieces, packs a genuine punch. Every hit and explosion blasts off of the page and is pushed into focus by well-planned sequential direction that knows exactly how to set up the comic’s hardest hitting action moments. Mark Dale’s color art is the finishing touch that really plants this comic as a throwback while still keeping it fresh and modern. Dale uses a slightly darker palette that compliments Mulholland’s hatching and shading, but also explodes with life when the magical and fire-blasting scenes come up. As a matter of fact, the panel direction is awesome in this comic, with a ton of unconventional and cut-together sequences that highlight the journey to the book’s biggest moments. Overall, Fireborn is off to a visually stunning start.
Verdict
Fireborn #1 is a blast from the past and a damn fun opening issue for this new series. The script from Curt Pires and Franklin Jonas doesn’t do anything all that new, but it’s delivered with an edge and attitude that will take readers tight back to the tone of the extreme 90’s. The visuals from Patrick Mulholland and Mark Dale are expertly drawn and match the book’s atmosphere to create something that feels like a throwback while staying distinctly modern. Be sure to grab this opening issue when it hits shelves on April 15th!
