TILT #1 – Review

TILT #1, from Catalyst Comics on July 17th, 2019, introduces readers to Tilt, a powerful hyper-evolved who escaped years of torment at the hands of a secret organization to become Boston’s first superhero.

The Details

• Written by: Aaron Dowen
• Art by: Joe DeSantos
• Colors by: Ramon Amancio
• Letters by: Joe DeSantos
• Cover art by: Matt Sotello, Joe DeSantos, Ramon Amancio
• Cover price: $3.99
• Release date: July 17, 2019

Was It Good?

Don’t let the cover fool you. TILT #1 is a tried and true superhero origin story that seeks to give readers a character with a distinctive voice, personality, and a big challenge to overcome. Filled with high-quality art, this is one of the better superhero visuals you’ll find on the indie scene. That said, this title may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

Let’s cover the easy part first. This issue has great art from DeSantos and Amancio. The lines are super (ahem) clean, the panel compositions are excellent, and the coloring is fantastic. At the risk of sounding picky, the gutters (spaces between panels) are oddly oversized, so the art is slightly crowded out by white space, and there are a few spots where the art progression doesn’t make sense. For example, Tilt approaches a building without an appointment, and he’s “thrown art” by the guards, but you never see it happen, and it looks like a few panels or even a whole page is missing.

The plot of this first issue is solid and almost familiar, but not quite cliché. Tilt takes a few pages from the X-Men and The Boys by laying out a story of people, called hyper-evolved, born with abilities. Tilt is original enough to stand on its own, but there are enough elements to make it feel familiar. The pacing is excellent, the dialog has its ups and downs (more on that in a minute), and the story progression makes sense.

The down point is a strange tonal oddity in the narration and the main character. Imagine The Boys if Homelander had the personality of Deadpool but less jokey. Tilt breaks the fourth wall frequently, he treats his interactions with other people with only mild seriousness, and his big challenge should be emotionally weighty, but Tilt is almost cavalier about the situation. Tilt cares enough to take action, but you never get a sense of strong emotion driving him forward. It’s not fair to say Tilt is just going through the motions, but at times, he seems to act because he doesn’t have anything better to do.

In fairness, the tonality may work for your preferred type of humor and snark, so take this down point with a grain of salt.

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 Patrick Eitilt, aka Tilt, flying around the skies over Boston as he explains his current status quo and the life he’s lived up to this point. Through his actions, we know Tilt can fly and has super strength, powers manifested when he was a teenager for unknown reasons. Tilt, however, is not the only hyper-evolved human around.

When Tilt’s powers first manifested, his parents agreed to let a man named Exquisite take Tilt away to a “school for gifted children.” Unfortunately, the school turned out to be a research facility dedicated to turning hyper-evos into weapons for the Council of Elders. Years later, Tilt escaped his handlers but remained in Boston and adopted the lifestyle of a local superhero.

Uncontent with simply moving on, Tilt decides to pay Exquisite a visit to find out who runs the hyper-evo program that brainwashed and tortured Tilt for years. We conclude the issue with a tip, a suit, and an assault.

Keep scrolling for a closer look at preview images of the internal pages, or Click Here to jump right to the score.

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