The Paybacks: Volume 1 Review

<p>Everybody at one point in their life wanted to be a super hero&comma; or a super villain&comma; so what if you could get a loan that would allow you to live those fantasies&quest; For some the temptation is too great to pass up&comma; while others have their own personal quarrels to deal with&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A shadowy figure named Mr&period; Pierce is willing to loan people the money they need&comma; all they have to do is pay him back according to their contract on time&comma; or they&&num;8217&semi;ll get a visit from <em>The Paybacks<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>The Paybacks<&sol;em> are Mr&period; Pierce&&num;8217&semi;s personal collection workers&comma; at one point every member on the team made a deal with Mr&period; Pierce for a large loan and they couldn&&num;8217&semi;t pay him back&period; The only way for these members to pay off their debt is to work off the debt&comma; or die trying&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The rules for being a Payback is simple&semi; you go out on collection missions to reposes valuable assets and forcefully recruit the person&lpar;s&rpar; that owe Mr&period; Pierce and you do as you&&num;8217&semi;re told&comma; least you feel like being blown up by your &&num;8216&semi;leash&&num;8217&semi;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The first instalment follows a small group of people that eventually ends up on the same team&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;105251" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-105251" style&equals;"width&colon; 600px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-105251" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;03185401&sol;paybacks2p3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;The Paybacks&comma; Dark Horse Comics&rpar;" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"923" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-105251" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;The Paybacks&comma; Dark Horse Comics&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Alpha team consists of a vampire named Emory Rains&comma; a giant Russian man named &&num;8216&semi;The Soviet Nunchuck&&num;8217&semi;&comma; a particle manipulator named BloodPouch and a Sasquatch named Skisquatch&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Beta consists of Miss Adventure&comma; a young heroine who still holds up that she is a hero and is just trying to do the right thing&comma; there are other members of Beta but they hold little importance compared to Miss Adventure&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>During a mission Beta team gets nearly wiped out&comma; only Miss Adventure survives&comma; and then discovers that the target she and her team were after has been killed before they were able to retrieve them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Meanwhile Alpha team successfully &&num;8216&semi;recruits&&num;8217&semi; a new member&comma; the British hero &&num;8216&semi;Night Knight&&num;8217&semi;&period; With her team gone Ms&period; Adventure is added to Alpha team along with the aforementioned Night Knight as they are sent out to collect more debts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Paybacks comic has a great blend of humor and characters&comma; everybody feels like a real person&comma; even the Sasquatch has a story many can relate to&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As you read the comic you&&num;8217&semi;ll quickly realize that the story is more than a one note &&num;8216&semi;lets see how many comic references we can fit into an issue&&num;8217&semi;&comma; a deeper plot appears in the form of the mysterious deaths of people that owed Mr&period; Pierce&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The writing by Donny Cates and Eliot Rahal is brilliant in the humor department&comma; spoken references are a blast and the interaction with the characters are fun&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;105252" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-105252" style&equals;"width&colon; 600px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-105252" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;04&sol;03185346&sol;paybacks2p5&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;The Paybacks&comma; Dark Horse Comics&rpar;" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"923" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-105252" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;The Paybacks&comma; Dark Horse Comics&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Night Knight has a unicorn sidekick that he never rides&comma; instead they run on rooftops and crash through windows together like it&&num;8217&semi;s a normal thing to do&period; Oh&comma; and just to add&comma; the Unicorn talks&period; So that&&num;8217&semi;s a thing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On the art side of things I&&num;8217&semi;m going to assume artist Geoff Shaw had a blast with this job&period; Riddled throughout the comic are fair use versions of known comic heroes&&num;8217&semi; gears&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Colors were done by Lauren Affe&comma; Geoff&&num;8217&semi;s art is complemented with Lauren&&num;8217&semi;s heavy use of ink&period; I say complement because when blood spills&comma; and blood will spill&comma; the colors blend in well and doesn&&num;8217&semi;t look over done like in other comics&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>The Paybacks Volume One&colon; Payback&&num;8217&semi;s A Bitch<&sol;em> is a simple collections of issues 1-4&comma; there are no extras like sketches or a forward by the team&comma; although there is a short comic called &&num;8216&semi;Space StepDad&&num;8217&semi; at the very end&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>The Paybacks Volume One&colon; Payback&&num;8217&semi;s A Bitch&comma; <&sol;em>available on April 27&comma; is a fun collection and is a worthy addition to any collection shelf&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em>This Comic Review is based on a review copy provided by Dark Horse Comics<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;