REDCOAT #1, by Image Comics on 4/3/24, introduces readers to the world’s most irresponsible mercenary and immortal when he’s approached to save the world from a dark evil.
The Details
- Written by: Geoff Johns
- Art by: Bryan Hitch, Andrew Currie
- Colors by: Brad Anderson
- Letters by: Rob Leigh
- Cover art by: Bryan Hitch, Brad Anderson (cover A)
- Comic Rating: Teen
- Cover price: $3.99
- Release date: April 3, 2024
Is REDCOAT #1 Good?
The story takes place in our reality or a parallel reality where historical figures and historical events have taken place but there are elements of magic, sorcery, and wizardry that underpin all the big historical events and the actions taken by the historical figures. For example, the founding fathers of the United States—people like John Hancock, Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin—they exist in this universe or this reality of Earth, but they have somehow learned or adopted or consumed or taking advantage of dark magics, some of it from the Native American peoples, some of it from other parts of the world. But magic exists, they don’t—it’s not prevalent and not everybody’s aware of it, but it does exist. That’s where we catch up with our main hero, and I use the term loosely, his name is Simon Pure. He is a Redcoat but a conscripted kind of person where he was brought over to the Americas to fight for the British as a Red Coat, but he’s more of a mercenary and rogue. He doesn’t mind lying, cheating, stealing, and being a coward and doing anything that seems selfish or self-serving. He’s got a nice sort of rakish personality, kind of a Han Solo type of personality, but he’s not above stabbing somebody in the back or double-crossing somebody or lying or swindling somebody if it meets his ends.
We meet Simon Pure fighting in the time of the Revolutionary War, but instead of sticking with the battle, he decides to go AWOL and he finds refuge in this church that’s in the middle of the woods. What he doesn’t realize is that while he’s hanging out in the church and trying to get some sleep in the middle of the night, he spies a group of hooded men coming in to perform some kind of ritual or ceremony. The gentleman who is at the altar or the sacrificial table is none other than Benjamin Franklin, and the ceremony was intended to imbue Ben Franklin with immortality through a series of pratfalls and slapstick clumsiness. Simon falls into the middle of the ceremony, and the spell imbues Simon with immortality instead of Ben Franklin.
Then we catch up with Simon about a century later after he’s had a series of adventures and misadventures and all kinds of shenanigans going on which we don’t see, which we’ll get to later on. We catch up with him in the 1800s when he’s on the run from all kinds of people because in the time that he’s been imbued with immortality till years later and even up to the present, he’s taken an assortment of jobs as a thief and a contract killer. He’s made all kinds of enemies through all parts of the country, and everybody wants revenge for what they did to their brother or their cousin or their son or it may be. In the course of the time, he’s learned he’s immortal because he’s been shot, stabbed, burned, hanged, you name it, that’s been done to him, and he’s buried it over and over and over again. And somehow, he’s always figured out the best ways to remove himself from a shallow grave. By the end of the issue, we find out that he’s in the 1800s, he’s been killed again because he’s double-crossed a barmaid who wants her money back that he stole, and the vigilantes who want revenge for a murdered cousin have come looking for him. She gives him up in exchange for payment of his bar tab and any other debts that he may have incurred.
Simon wakes up in a grave, but who’s waiting outside of the grave is a small boy with a thick German accent. And we come to find out that that small boy, who has a genius-level intellect, is a young Albert Einstein. And Albert Einstein says, “I’ve been looking for you. I know who you are. I know that you have magical power at least imbued in you even if you don’t know how to wield it, and I need you to come with me because we need to go save the world.” But before they get two steps, Simon Pure is surrounded by a gang of hooded individuals who look like the sorcerers that tried to imbue Ben Franklin with immortality through magic almost a century ago. It seems they’ve been searching for Simon Pure for a long time to retrieve and recover the magic that he accidentally acquired from them many years ago. And that’s where we leave the issue—it’s all set up, it’s establishing the world and the characters and this alternate fictional history of reality, but that’s where we take it as far as the first issue goes, not onto the mission per se, but at least the beginning of a mission. But most of the issue is spent on setup and establishing who Simon is and what he’s all about.
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What did we like about REDCOAT #1?
If you’re a fan of historical fiction, which is the type of fiction where you take real-life people and real-life historical events and give them a magical or fantasy twist, this story is up your alley. Simon is used as the vehicle to kind of navigate through the ins and outs of all these historical events and these magical happenings that may have happened behind the scenes, which is the history you didn’t know behind the history that you already knew. It’s that kind of storytelling. Plus, Simon is a selfish character, but there’s a certain charm and a certain personality to him that kind of gets you on his side, even though you know he’s selfish and he makes all the wrong choices. You want him to succeed despite himself, and that’s the kind of world-building and storytelling that Geoff Johns has established in this first issue.
What didn’t we like about REDCOAT #1?
Simon Pure may not be everybody’s cup of tea as a main character. I mentioned Han Solo earlier in that he’s sort of a rogue or got rakish personality with plenty of charm, but he has been known to make the poor decisions. Simon Pure takes that to the nth degree because he’s been around, in this case, a century or more, but he continues to make the same mistakes over and over again, even though he self-proclaimed he’s not bright and that he has many, many bad habits. At some point, you’ve got to say that that shtick kind of lasts only so long. Will he experience any character growth? And if he does experience any character growth, it’s taking a slow, long time to get there. And it’s cute to begin with, but it can get annoying after a while. Now, I’m projecting forward; this is just the first issue. You did get a lot of great character work and world development to kind of get you into the mindset of what’s happening here. But the character may turn around in the next few issues, but there is a risk here that because he is sort of obnoxious in his idiocy, that readers may get tired of that pretty soon or pretty quick. We’ll see how it turns out.
How’s the Art?
The pencils and inks are both done by Bryan Hitch and Andrew Currie with coloring by Brad Anderson, and it looks fantastic. The character designs are richly detailed, the color application, the shading, feathering, contours, all look visually speaking, this is a gorgeous-looking comic. Plenty of detail, plenty, plenty of visual appeal, and distinctiveness. And all the characters, in particular, the faces, character faces, all have unique individual facial expressions and facial compositions. You feel you’re in a world full of different diverse individuals that gives the story a sense of groundedness and realism. The art looks fantastic from start to finish.
Final Thoughts
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REDCOAT #1 is going to be a big hit with folks that like alternate or fictional history type stories because it’s history with a magical or fantasy twist, and the main character is charming to a point, even though he’s imbued with bad habits and makes the same mistakes over and over again. On the plus side, there’s a lot of charm and a lot to like in this first issue with the fantastic art. On the downside, the personality of the main character may get annoying after a period of time if he doesn’t show some character development and character growth
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