Thanks to barnesandnoble.com for the image.

In the world of Poison Candy, the new OEL manga by David Hine and Hans Steinbach, the SKAR virus spreads suspicion and death.  It selectively chooses a handful of teenagers, giving them superhuman telekinetic powers along with a death sentence.  While defending his friend Yusuf and his girlfriend Donna from a band of thugs, 16-year-old Sam Chance unleashes a TK fury that saves the day, but marks him as SKAR-positive.  Henry Raven, the owner of the software game giant, Elektroactive, comes forward, offering to help Sam with a possible cure, just as another shadowy governmental organization seeks to obtain Sam or destroy him.

THE LOWDOWN:  Poison Candy writer/creator David Hine is known for his work with Marvel Comics, including such X-Men and mutant related titles as District X, Son of M, and X-Men: The 198.  The influence of working on Marvel’s X-franchise is evident in Poison Candy and the SKAR-virus, which essentially genetically mutates otherwise healthy teens.  The resulting powers the infected gain are similar to the mutant powers of Marvel Girl/Jean Grey and Rachel Summers/Phoenix.

The overall story doesn’t have that supernatural feel of superhero comics and is more real world oriented like NBC’s popular TV series, “Heroes.”  Hine has paced this like one of those espionage suspense thrillers that populate the prose fiction bestseller lists.  In fact, it’s very well constructed, and Hine skillfully engages the reader with a series of scenes – both quiet and action-packed – that keep the pages turning until Vol. 1’s shocking ending.

Artist Hans Steinbach is good at translating Hine’s story and concept into a visual narrative, but he’s still at the raw and awkward stage in terms of drawing for graphic storytelling.  Hanzo has some kinks to work out in cartooning human anatomy, basic figure drawing, depicting figures in motion, and posing and placing characters in environments, especially when drawing more than one character in a panel or scene.  Still, Hanzo is both stylish and strong on the substance of storytelling.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Anyone who reads any X-Men comics or related series on a regular basis, especially Hine’s work, may want to try this superbly-paced sci-fi thriller.

B+

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