Bankshot #1 Review

Bankshot #1
Writer: Alex de Campi
Artist: Chriscross
Colorist: Snakebite Cortez
Letterer: Alex de Campi
Publisher: Dark Horse

A review by Josh Rose

Marcus King is wanted by both the FBI and Russian Intelligence, but for completely different reasons. Bankshot #1 sees the fallout of an FBI op to capture one of Marcus King’s associates. Marcus visits the FBI heads and “persuades” them to leave him alone indefinitely. Shortly after, the head of the SVR visits Marcus to hire him for a job that brings a figure from his past back into his life.

Alex de Campi has set up a character driven story with a ton of action in Bankshot #1. Who is Marcus King, how did he become a terrorist/hitman, and who is this adversary from his past? Of course he’s answering those questions with flashbacks. Honestly, I feel like I’ve seen this movie before. Stop me if you’ve heard this one – our hero has it all and is living the good life, suddenly a mysterious figure from his past returns to upset it all. Hopefully, as Bankshot goes along some unique twist will happen so it isn’t just another action flick.

The art by Chriscross and Snakebite Cortez is pretty good, but I wouldn’t call it great. There are a few panels in Bankshot #1 where I needed to look close, tilt my head, and squint one eye in order to figure out what was going on, and then I questioned why they chose to do the art that way. There were also a few panels I felt were were way too small to see with any clarity. I feel like Chriscross was aiming for cinematic shots with his panel layout, but it just feels busy and distracting. Cortez’s colours are fairly well done, earthy in tone, but they lack vibrancy which made the pages look kind of dull. That being said, there were a ton of explosions and if these guys have a specialty, its explosions!

De Campi also lent her talents to do lettering for Bankshot #1 which I feel was a bit of a mistake. She seems to experiment with numerous styles and fonts, often within the same panel. Some of her letters are coloured in a way that makes it hard to distinguish from the art. It just distracted from the story for me.

The Verdict
Wait and See – Bankshot #1 has the potential to be a fantastic read, and is loaded with a ton of action almost immediately. Unfortunately, I found the colors a bit dull, and the lettering distracting. On the other hand, EXPLOSIONS! Check it out if you’re up for some mindless violence and a ton of explosions.