CHESS #4, from Second Sight Publishing on March 16th, 2022, the team races to find Nakadai before Schafer has time to do his worst. Meanwhile, the CTS is on a collision course with CHESS.
The Details
- Written By: Alfred Paige, Alex De-Gruchy
- Art By: William Allen Reyes, Jesse Hansen
- Colors By: Yuan Cakra
- Letters By: Jaymes Reed
- Cover Art By: William Allen Reyes
- Cover Price: $3.99
- Release Date: March 16, 2022
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Was It Good?
We’re no strangers to Second Sight Publishing, but this IS our first exposure to CHESS through Second Sight’s Freedomverse imprint line of action comics. So far, CHESS #4 is a pleasant surprise.
The first notable positive is how much information you can get about the arc, and figure out what’s going on, without the benefit of having read the previous issues. There will be some blank spots, but by and large, you can settle right into the story without feeling lost. CHESS #4 is an excellent example of writers recognizing that every comic is somebody’s first comic.
Next, the comic doesn’t waste any time. Every panel is either setting up the stakes to tell the characters (and you) where everyone is headed and what needs to happen to win the conflict at hand. This is a “race to the prize” issue, so it needs to have consistently high energy to work, and again, Paige and De-Guchy do it right.
The premise of this issue surrounds a race by multiple parties, with conflicting agendas, to recover Nakadai safely. Through a combination of exposition and dialog, you get the motivations of each group clearly, you understand their motivations, and you can recognize when differing agendas have enough in common to allow for potential team-ups in the future. This is a well-crafted, tried and true, action/adventure story.
As for the art, it’s good. Not spectacular, but good. The anatomical proportions, especially on character faces, are inconsistent, but the designs are excellent, and the coloring is outstanding.
Keep scrolling for a closer look at the covers, or Click Here to jump right to the story description with some spoilers.
What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
We begin with the CHESS team after their skirmish against CTS. The press was fed footage of the fight intentionally spun to make it look like CHESS are the bad guys. They have no choice but to keep out of the public eye while they shift focus on finding Nakadai. They also consider discovering Footpath escaped her captors and is on her way to Schafer’s location via the tracker she placed on him.
Meanwhile, CTS also wants to get their boss, Nakadai, back. First, they must contend with his daughter’s telekinetic powers escalating uncontrollably. They learn through Nakadai’s assistant where he went, and they had out to intercept Nakadai before CHESS gets there.
Elsewhere, we see Schafer holding Nakadai at gunpoint. Schafer is willing to kill Nakadai and everyone else in the house to get the information he wants. We conclude the issue with a sibling revelation, jealous rage, and explosive consequences.
Keep scrolling for a closer look at preview images of the internal pages, or Click Here to jump right to the score.
Final Thoughts
CHESS #4 is an excellent action/adventure, super-team comic with clear writing, clear stakes, clear motivations, and high energy. The art is good to very good if you’ll excuse a little inconsistency in the character proportions.
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