Honor has a few things going for it. Overall, the story here isn’t the strongest, but the content and the maturity of it is different from a lot of the other Double Take issues. The story begins with our Police Chief and one of his deputies sitting in a speed trap looking to bust just the right person. They’re passing on people from the state and neighboring states. Then a New York car drives by and they’ve got their man. They pull him over and you can pretty much tell that it’s a screw job to milk the out-of-towner for money. The driver gets extremely upset by this, but his wife helps him relax. This leads to sex in the car which is probably what strangely kept the book out of certain retail stores. I will tell you right now, it’s all implied. I have seen Marvel and DC comics show and imply more than what’s in this comic so don’t be shy.
Eventually a crazy ass farmer on a tractor drives by going over 60 mph. They take off after him, not to arrest him, but to clock him and see if he has a chance of winning at the next fair. It’s ridiculous to an extent, but it’s a lot of fun. It adds personality to the Chief who we only see briefly at the end taking care of zombies. We see him in Soul, basically doing the same things he does in Night. There’s an event in this comic and we’ll see more of it in another comic so I’m not going to spoil it here. I will in that review just to give you fair warning.
Overall the art is good. There are some full and ¾ page scenes that I don’t feel needed to be that big, but that seems to be a design choice for the line. Otherwise the coloring is really strong and I liked the facial expressions from the different characters. While I don’t think the layouts where perfect, the penciling and coloring were very strong.
What’s strange about this comic is the story that our deputy is telling all the way throughout. She starts and stops based on the other events, but there’s this moment in which she shouldn’t continue her story or at the very least finish it differently and she doesn’t. She just continues on as if nothing happened and it’s very strange. It comes across as the Chief and Deputy being heartless and uncaring. That, and I’m not really sure what the story had to do with anything. I hope that that is revealed in the next issue, but for now I only have a guess. I need more than that.
If you read my Soul review, this next paragraph is the same because the feelings are still the same.
Once again I can’t stress enough how much fun it is reading Double Take’s line of books in print. The price is right, there are ads to enjoy and frankly didn’t distract from the reading and most importantly… the paper stock. I know some of you are like, “shut up about the paper, what’s the big deal!?!” Well you either get it or you don’t. I like my covers two ways, the way that Double Take does it and the way Valiant does it with their Premiere line of comics. That’s it. Sure I’ll take some lesser versions, but if you want to win me over with your comic… print on good paper and have a great cover feel. I touch the cover more than anything else, it shouldn’t feel like the rest of the comic.
Honor has my attention because it’s a strange combination of humor, dark comedy and drama. I don’t know what to expect in the next issue, but I’m definitely curious. I just hope that the characters will be fleshed out more and not so awkward. Check out the issue, but don’t be surprised if you’re a little confused by it.
Score: 3/5
Honor #1 – “Protect. Serve. Beat. Burn.” Story: Bill Jemas, Julian Rowe Script: Frank Ortega, Bill Jemas Layouts: Julian Rowe Pencils: Carlos Rodriguez Publisher: Double Take Comics Price: $2.50 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital