Throughout my entire life, I have always had an affinity to the oddball and more aggressive characters. Characters who, if not handled properly, can fall into obscurity if the company isn’t careful. When Teen Titans ended, that was my biggest fear for Crush. Crush is a character who I fell in love with the moment I saw her and I have made sure to read every appearance since. She has felt like a character who was waiting for the right team to really highlight her for who she is and more importantly can be. Thankfully, she has that now with Crush & Lobo #1.
Eisner Award Winner Mariko Tamaki finally gives Crush the voice she has needed since her debut. The debut issue is stuffed to the brim with weirdness, action, and most importantly heart. Crush is struggling hardcore after her time with the Titans. Can you blame her? The Main Man Lobo is her dad and she is trying to grapple with all of those teenage emotions. She has never had a strong role model since her adoptive parents were also not the best examples. So emotions are hard for her, and it’s even harder on her relationships. We see it in her interactions with her girlfriend Katie and with her conversation with one of her fellow teen superheroes. Crush feels more developed in this issue than ever before as we see the messy complicated core she has. Tamaki writes Crush as someone who yearns for love but doesn’t know how to accept it yet. I look forward to seeing more interaction between Crush and Lobo since the dialogue in this issue is so strong. It’s so important for these comics to be more than punching but rather have some punch to your heart strings. This debut delivers hard on that.
The art from Amancay Nahuelpan and colors by Tamra Bonvillain are perfect for the story being told in Crush & Lobo. Nahuelpan’s drawing of each character’s facial expressions is evocative of a lot of the emotions each scene is drawing on. The action scenes have a very fluid motion to them thats extremely important for a rough and tumble character like crush. Bonvillain is one of the best colorists in the business, I have to say that outright. The color pallet of this book is bombastic and just outright WONDERFUL in every scene from fighting in an alley to sitting in a dreary apartment, it’s such a beautiful thing to look at with Nahuelpan’s art. Ariana Maher’s lettering and caption box design is out of this world. Her boxes for Crush’s fourth wall breaking inner monologue is so fitting for the character.
I cannot recommend this book enough to someone who is looking to learn more about Crush or is looking for their character in the DC Universe.
Cover Variant Art by Yoshi Yoshitani