I’ve been a fan of Josh Howard’s art for years. And it’s
always been a dream of mine to see his interpretation of Isis or E’steem on one
of my book covers or even in a graphic novel. So when I saw the Kickstarter for
his new comic T-Bird & Throttle in November of last year, I was eager to
help back the project. Unfortunately, while I wasn’t short any dollars, I was
just a day late. After downloading and reading the #0 issue on the Kickstarter
page I was bummed that I missed out on getting the first issue.
Thankfully, I was lucky enough to pick up the first issue on
Comixology. And after the reading the first issue I’m definitely looking
forward to the second. Josh has crafted an intriguing mystery revolving around
Mitchell “Mitch” Maddox, the superhero known to Centennial City as T-Bird, the
man with an alien engine in his chest. He’s one part Opitmus Prime, One Part
and One part Mr. Incredible. A family man, he tries to divide his time between
raising his family and trying to protect Centennial City from the bad guys with
his sexy redheaded sidekick Throttle. From the #0 issue, it seems like crime
fighting is taking its toll on Mitch’s personal life. In spite of his professional
success, his wife is having an affair and after Mitch has a run in with a
mutated Billy Sneed, we’re given a clue regarding the mysterious alien engine
in his chest. The #0 issue ends on a cliffhanger with Mitch going to Amy’s
house talking about how he killed them all.
Who did he kill? That’s the question I was eager to get an
answer to when I picked up T-Bird & Throttle #1. And while I didn’t get an
answer to that question I got a few clues reading about the aftermath of that
tragic turn of events.
Issue #1 opens up right after establishing the mystery of
issue #0 and gives us a clue to what happened after Mitch went to Amy’s house. It
looks like whoever died was someone close to Mitch. And the Aftermath was quite
tragic for a superhero like T-Bird to be contemplating suicide. Those gun
scenes were DARK. I could FEEL Mitch’s pain in them, because I’ve been there
myself.
Somehow Mitch finds the courage to keep fighting the good
fight. 10 years later, he’s out of the Superhero game. Now a middle-aged man he’s
trying to be a hero to his daughter by being the best father he can be. After
dropping his daughter Emily off at High School, Centennial City’s fallen hero
is working comicons (with an agent who eerily looks like John Byrne) and trying
to make it the best way he can. (If he’s working cons life is really ROUGH) It’s
at one of the cons that a Starlink employee approaches him and makes a proposal
to him. He turns her down, however, he rushes back to his former employer Starlink
after reading a comic that makes a mockery of him his origin and the personal
tragedy suffered. There his former boss offers to help him return to glory as
he make him a proposal to go find a possible second engine on the moon.
As Mitch contemplates the offer to return to his glory days,
he heads back to pick up his daughter who has found out about that comic that
mocks them. The issue ends with the threat of the Moon Men invading Earth, SJWs
and hipsters threatening Mitch, Mitch getting jumped in an alley by the same
SJWs and Hipsters, getting a glimpse at that comic that mocks T-Bird, a hint at
who died in that personal tragedy, a battered Mitch running into officer Amy
and Gruesome telling everyone he’s here.
Who’s Gruesome? And what does he want with T-Bird? What has
Amy been doing over the last few years? Are Mitch and Amy Still cool? How does
Emily feel about the way her father has been treated? How rough was Emily’s day
at school? What will she have to say about Amy? Will Mitch take the offer from
Starlink to search for the new engine? All the answers to those questions are
in T-Bird & Throttle #2. And Shawn is DEFINTIELY gonna pick up issue #2 in
Fall/Winter of 2018 when Josh publishes it.
T-Bird & Throttle’s first issue is a GREAT comic. Josh
Howard does a great job building up the mystery he started in the #0 issue. A
good mystery answers questions and has the reader asking more. And T-Bird &
Throttle’s first issue answers a lot of the questions I asked in the #0 issue
and had me asking more questions as I continued to read the 60-page first
issue. The mystery in this space opera is incredibly intriguing, the more I
read about it the more I want to know about what happened to Mitch years ago,
what happened to his family and I wondered if he’ll go back to Starlink to take
on the Moon men again.
In T-Bird & Throttle, Josh does a great job of
developing rich, multidimensional characters in a very compelling story. When I
was reading the first issue I heard the characters speaking to me, and as I
went from panel to panel each scene had art and colors so dynamic and filled
with emotion I felt like I was in the middle of an animated movie. The more I
saw his art in this comic, I was more eager to see his art on an Isis or
E’steem series book cover. Hoping we can make it happen one day.
As a guy who has struggled with depression, anxiety, and periods
of long-term unemployment and been through hard times in my own life, I could
really relate to Mitch’s story. A lot of what drives Mitch to keep doing right
is a lot of what drives me to keep persevering in the face of so many troubles.
While Mitch has an engine for a heart, he still has love for all the people in
his life. And in spite of all the bad breaks he’s gotten in life, he still
wants to do the right thing for his daughter and all the people in his life.
That’s what makes him a hero in my book, the fact that he has the character and
resolve to keep standing for what he believes in even though he’s fallen on
hard times.
T-Bird & Throttle #1 gets my highest recommendation.
This is a comic YOU CANNOT MISS! You can pick up a paper copy on Josh’s website
or you can pick up a digital version on Comixology. Let’s #MoveTheNeedle and
give this great comic the audience it deserves!
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