Review of Onyx #1

Onyx #1

Onyx from IDW wasn’t even on my radar, until a friend sent me a shirt along with the first issue. I’ve finally gotten around to reading it. Take a look at my Spoiler Filled review of issue #1!

“From deepest space comes the cyborg warrior Onyx… but has she come to Earth in its time of dire need to save it or to end it? A star-born knight for a new generation takes flight here!” reads the description on IDW’s website. You can find that HERE! So let’s dive and see what this series is all about.

Writing: 

So in opening this issue…. going in cold, not having researched the title at all. I was not exactly sure of what my expectations would be. I’ll say this right up front this creative team is new to me. I’ve heard of and know who Chris Ryall is, but until now I sadly have never read anything he’s written. After reading this issue, my initial reaction was wow Onyx seems like it’s gonna be a grim and gritty series. After all Earth is essentially destroying itself. Or rather we humans are in this series. The sheer numbers of the population that Ryall tells us about is mind-boggling. Not sure I wanna live long enough to see those numbers as far as the population goes. So we have a rag-tag military team ready to save the world, or at least try not to die and save the city. I love all the different personalities that Ryall gives each character. That makes for interesting reading, seeing how they interact with each other. I almost wanna compare these characters to the Galaxy Quest team, but I know that isn’t exactly fair. When onyx appears she feels like a cross between Iron Man and Abomination in her suit design. I find it interesting that Onyx calls them all humans, yet when they ask her if she is human she says no. And yet when we do see her face she looks human.

Basically the story here is these spores attack the planet, and nothing this military group can do will stop them. So as I stated earlier Onyx arrives to save the day. Yet the team doesn’t really trust Onyx right away. What I enjoyed in Ryall’s writing was how each character viewed Onyx’s arrival, and how they eventually came to trust her. What I’m wondering is will this series continue with these same team members throughout? Fighting by Onyx’s side… or will we see other characters appear? I am assuming that for the most part it will be this same team. Which is fine with me, I’m interested in seeing where some of the characters go. The whole time I was reading this I wanted to know more about Onyx!!! Chris Ryall does a wonderful job introducing us to her, and giving us her back story, but i felt that it needed just a bit more. We do get great battle scenes, which I’ll talk about when I get to the art.The “Loner” who is psychic character by far seems to be the most interesting… The rest of the team seems to be various military types, that all almost look down on her. Ryall’s dialogue is very well executed, and after reading this first issue… I’m pretty tempted to keep up with the series.

Art:

The art in this is very well done. Gabriel Rodriguez is a new artist to me as I mentioned before. The entire look of the first issue is very raw and real. I’ve never really been one to believe that alien species could invade Earth, but with this art… uh yeah I kinda believe now. The colors are magnificent, backgrounds well-lit, and dark when they need to be. Onyx’s character design looks superhero-like, but is more of a suit of armor than anything else. The battle scenes are beautifully put together.

Final Thoughts:

Overall issue #1 of Onyx was interesting. It has a real Alien film feel, and I know from reading the letters page that was what Chris Ryall was going for. I love that they included all the bios, and even did up creators bios for the creative team. That’s something you don’t see everyday in comics! You can get Onyx #1 from Comixology digitally or any of your local comic shops!