No One Left To Fight #1 attempts to answer the question: what happens when you defeat the big bad? But alas, this is a story, and there is always something to fight or conquer. And No One Left To Fight #1 begins with world hero Vale, returning to his friends with the hopes of some new adventure to go on. Writer Aubrey Sitterson, artist Fico Ossio, and letterer Taylor Esposito construct a bright, vibrant world for this story, and while the plot does not seem that unique quite yet, the characters are genuine and different enough that they may overcome their own trope trappings.
Reading No One Left To Fight immediately brought up the nostalgic feeling of a triumphant overpowered hero returning after a long absence. It reminds one of past Dragon Ball cartoons, which makes sense as it was chiefly inspired by Dragon Ball. It does not help that main protagonist Vale even resembles Dragon Ball hero Goku, with an orange Gi, spiky hair, and a presumably easy-going personality. Most of the side characters also similarities to Dragon Ball characters. But these similarities are really only surface deep, as Sitterson goes in-depth into these characters and what makes them different. Although Vale is pretty laid back, he might be struggling with some PTSD symptoms from his battle with Gor Despo and now is pretty averse to fighting in general. Timór is similarly narcissistic and arrogant as his Dragon Ball counterpart Vegeta, but he is noticeably jealous with his children admiration of Vale and fearful of his wife’s friendship with Vale.
The way these characters diverge from genre tropes gives hope that No One Left To Fight will evolve past these traps into crafting its own unique story. Unfortunately, there really is not much story to go on in this first issue; it is more so an introduction to the central characters. And besides the two previously mentioned, all of them seem to be feasibly interesting. Fargen VI seems to add comic relief, although because he looks different from every other character, perhaps there is some interesting backstory to him, but Krysten really steals the show with her confidant and cool mom attitude.
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Krysten is only in this issue for a couple of scenes, but her presence is felt in every frame. She is the reason Vale and Timór fight, and it almost feels like she is the reason Vale came back, as Sitterson and Ossio clearly depict Vale still having feelings for her.
Fico Ossio’s art is vibrant, kinetic, and fits well with Sitterson’s script. The color pallet is a tad overly bright with neon colors flooding every page, and it may turn off some readers. However, Ossio’s fight scenes are beautifully rendered, and the energy blasts dispense look awesomely destructive. Ossio also gets noticeably creative with his panel layouts and use of empty space, especially when the action scenes kick off. There is some confusion as to what may or may not be one of Vale’s hallucinations, but that seems to be the point. If anything it falls more so on the script for there not being more of the interruptions, because the few instances of it happening in this chapter almost feel like accidents.
No One Left To Fight #1 is a fun, energetic deconstruction of the Über powered fighting cartoons and does so lovingly. Sitterson’s characters are thoughtful plays on the tropes they are based off, and Ossio’s art is fast, detailed, and visceral. The one complaint that could be levied against this chapter is the overall lack of substance or drive, but that is to be expected for a first issue. With that being said, No One Left To Fight #1 is definitely worth the first leap.
