This week’s Wednesday Comics Reviews column is feeling the crunch as San Diego Comic-Con approaches, but we’ve still got a set of new reviews for you — including The Voice Said Kill #1, Godzilla (Kei-Sei Era) #1, and more! Plus, a pre-order recommendation for The Adventures of Lumen N. #1 in our FOC Watch section!
The Voice Said Kill #1
Writer: Si Spurrier
Artist: Vanesa Del Rey
Colorist: John Starr
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Publisher: Image Comics
The Voice Said Kill #1 follows a pregnant wildlife officer, Sergent Marie Burgau, as she is left alone to monitor the Corbeaumort wildlife preserve in the Louisiana bayou. If that wasn’t hard enough, she has to deal with the Watters family and their missing prodigal son, Buck. The situation begins to deteriorate further as Marie is forced to make a difficult choice between life and death.
Si Spurrier teams up with artist Vanesa Del Ray to deliver one of the most suspenseful comics of 2025. The melding between writing and art is phenomenal. This is a slimy world that feels disgusting and authentic. Spurrier’s writing quickly establishes a world that feels absolutely seedy. The grimy dynamic between Marie and the Watters matriarch is a central defining moment of the issue. The sheer effectiveness and efficiency in the storytelling in this conflict is impressive. We get a quick understanding of the Watters family threat.
Throughout the issue we see Spurrier revisiting this wildlife officer barbecue and each visit something more is revealed. It’s quickly becoming clear something is up and we cannot rely on Marie to tell the truth. It’s simple but effective moments like this that sets up intrigue in how the character functions.
The world building and storytelling is assisted by Vanesa Del Ray’s line work and John Starr’s phenomenal colors. Del Ray’s figure work is expressive and life-like. Great body language is essential in a slow burn story as it provides emotional stakes and weight to the story.
Del Ray’s page compositions give the issue this excellent pace as it moves from slow day in the life to the hectic action in the climax. The way the layouts shift from clean “wide-scream” format to a quick succession of close up action that borders on frantic is amazing. While there are moments that make the action not as clear, the frantic nature of the composition gives the issue a much needed kinetic burst.
John Starr uses a pastel coloring technique to the issue that gives it this chunky, texture art that is able to mix the real with the surreal. It’s unlike most comics on the rack and I appreciate that. The pastels couple with Del Ray’s sketchy line work gives this comic a different aura about it. The controlled chaos on the page feels representative of the story as the issue closes as Marie’s dark decisions are about to come to the light and there will be a messy reckoning.
The Voice Said Kill #1 is a very strong first issue as the creative team is firing on all cylinders. I highly recommend picking this one up. You won’t regret it.
Godzilla – Kai-Sei Era #1
Writer: Tim Seeley
Artist: Nikola Čižmešija
Colorist: Francesco Segala
Letterer and Design: Nathan Widick
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Review by D. Morris
On the page that follows the content of Godzilla #1, the copy promises a bold new and weirder vision of Godzilla. Wherever that is, it’s not to be found in this issue written by Tim Seely and with art by Nikola Cižmešija, colors by Francesco Segala, and letters/design by Nathan Widick.
The easiest way to describe this is “what if Godzilla fought superheroes?” The result is even less interesting than it sounds because Marvel is already doing that right now. At Marvel, it’s superheroes with personalities. All of the characters here seem like cliches or come across as cutsey. The leader hates kaiju! One character has a social media following! Another sympathizes and telepathically connects with the monsters! The lead character is angry! Jet Jaguar only speaks in his theme song (ugh)!
Sure this is the debut issue and we’re just meeting these characters, but they’re all so radioactively dull. Sure, the human element is rarely the most exciting or memorable in a Godzilla story. Also, it’s hard to think this represents a daring take on the material when there’s a Godzilla movie where the humans fight space cockroaches or alien invasions. Sorry but superheroes getting drunk on a beach after fighting Anguirus isn’t as fun as it sounds.
Also, lot of information gets thrown out in this opening issue that sounds important, but never particularly seems relevant to what’s going on. What should be world building like constant mentioning of a “deadzone” is only set up for an entirely different Godzilla book.
One of my problems with IDW’s current line is that many properties have at least four spinoff books. Nothing can exist as its own series. It makes sense if you’re trying to pad out your line of books. Except this also weakens your flagship title, turning that book into set up for more stories than maybe it can support, especially if the lead book is as weak as this one is.
Space Ghost Annual #1
Writer: David Pepose
Art: Jonathan Lau
Colors: Andrew Dalhouse
Letters: Taylor Esposito
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Review by Clyde Hall
Imagine something you enjoyed as a kid. And then imagine that, even in those tender years, you instinctively felt more could be done with it. And thinking, well…maybe someday.
That’s Space Ghost and me. At first it was just the iconic costume as designed by Alex Toth, hands down the best design of any Hanna-Barbera action heroes. But the concept of a sci-fi superhero using a supernatural motif was as intriguing to wee me as an orphan vowing to become a bat as a method for terrorizing criminals and seeking justice.
Those first SG cartoons were fun when I was 6. By the time I hit 8, though, the villains felt silly (they never sent a tingle up my spine the way some Jonny Quest villains did) and there was a formula to the episodes, usually one reliant on Jan and Jace needing rescued. I read the H-B adaptations in Gold Key Comics, but they were cut directly from the animated show cloth. And as I grew to appreciate the late ‘60s and early ‘70s Marvel, DC, and Charlton, I wished Space Ghost would get a comic title more like the ones their characters enjoyed. One where we saw the heroes without their masks, explored their intergalactic setting, and learned about them as people. Maybe someday.
One day was in 1987 with Steve Rude’s beautifully drawn Space Ghost one-shot from Comico. An excellent homage to the H-B Saturday mornings take on SG but not breaking any new ground. Another day was in 2005 with DC’s Alex Ross Space Ghost limited series. Artwork unsurpassed. Love for the character concept, check. Tone so grim and gritty, it could serve as a segment in the original Heavy Metal movie with a Taarna team-up? Excellent, yet not the sci-fi superhero series I’d imagined. Yet another day, again from DC, in 2016 . Future Quest came out, an ensemble of the best H-B action characters. At times, they were even teamed alongside heroes like Green Lantern and Adam Strange. This was close to the target, but more crossovers & cameos than a living, breathing treatment of Space Ghost as a futuristic superhero in his own cosmic epic.
I’ll admit that elusive Someday was mostly discounted as the kid who wanted it became a grownup, then a husband, then a father, then a grandfather, and then a retiree. Until 2024, when David Pepose and Jonathan Lau brought the Space Ghost I’d imagined to Dynamite. A Someday 55 years in the making, yet one worth the wait.
The highlights of that 12 issue run include a Space Ghost who fully embraces the sci-fi superhero vibe. He plies superstitious dread against evildoers when they come to fear ‘The Space Ghost’, a phantom with executioner’s hood right from their nightmares. We got a Jan and Jace who were clever, capable, but still kids. Kids who proved worthy allies as the title progressed. Blip as not just a space monkey in a mask, but a character vital to the overall plot. And, finally, villain treatments for all the original cartoon supervillains that made them more than just menacing. Lastly, situations that posed significant challenges and threat levels few SG treatments had provided.
Perfection? No. Pepose’s Space Ghost needs all of his tech gadgetry used wisely for any chance of prevailing against the Rogues Gallery fielded in this series. At times, he seems a bit underpowered or overmatched, often in need of a rescue himself. Simultaneously, it feels like the traditional Space Ghost abilities get a ‘lift’ in application or power levels to overcome obstacles. Yet, each issue delivers a stand-alone threat which is overcome, albeit sometimes temporarily, and an advancement of the main plot propelled by McGuffin and a dark presence looming in the shadows.
This week’s Space Ghost Annual #1 resolves all remaining issues with the series’ Big Bad, sees Blip fulfill his McGuffin status, and firms the found family foundations between Space Ghost/Dax, Jan, and Jace.
The shadowy presence propelling events leading to Space Ghost’s origin, one which made orphans of Jan and Jace, and who needs Blip for the integrated programming he carries is a rogue AI. One that’s tasked with establishing a collective to safeguard civilization against the chaos and destruction that’s followed intelligent life to the stars. That can only be accomplished by a process that’s the worst of all worlds, a galaxy-wide control system that’s a hybrid of Borg drone application teamed with Ultron’s misguided attempts to ‘help’ all existing lifeforms.
The curtain it brings down on Volume One feels earned, and not at all easy. There are chilling moments. AI bringing back the ghost of a loved one as a defense mechanism is perhaps the most unnerving. These are the sorts of Black Mirror-lite moments which gave the series legs, and Pepose and Lau more than stick the Phantom Cruiser landing with this wrap. We even get some out-of-costume moments between foster father and his charges, the kind of superhero development I’ve longed for.
Perhaps even more impressive is the hook left dangling for Volume 2. It tracks, to put it simply. Because in real life as in fiction, what saves us from one danger can become the glue binding us to another. Perhaps an even worse one.
Here’s hoping the next volume of Space Ghost sees the creative team continue, and in the same spirit with which they began Volume One, guided it through 12 strong issues, and ended on a pitch-perfect finale. That’s Space Ghost Annual #1. They’ve managed what mostly eluded previous attempts adapting the cartoon into comic book form. Namely, they kept the best elements of H-B’s source material intact, while introducing a more mature approach to narrative. It works. And you don’t have to wait 55 years like I did to see it. Go get your copy this week!
Look Into My Eyes #1
Writer/Artist: Rubine
Colorist: Francesco Segala
Letterer: El Torres
Publisher: Mad Cave Studios
Review by Tim Rooney
Column edited by The Beat’s reviews editor, Zack Quaintance. Read past entries in the weekly Wednesday Comics reviews series!
Next week…we’ll do our best to get some reviews up in this space, even as San Diego Comic Con bears down upon us!
