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Pearl is the brand new story coming from the creators of Jessica Jones, Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos, and is the launch title for Bendis’ new Jinxworld imprint that he is running at DC which includes quite a few new and returning books. This issue is a great kickstart to the series with some fantastic art by Gaydos in his signature watercolor, style and has some intriguing writing by Bendis.
So what’s it about?
The official summary reads:
From the Peabody Award-winning creators of Jessica Jones comes a brand-new creation. PEARL is the story of an exceptional tattoo artist and accidental assassin for one of the modern-day San Francisco Yakuza.
She was born into one life, but another is calling to her. When Pearl accidentally meets one of her peers, her doppelgänger from another clan, she starts to dream of a better life. But Pearl has a very special ability that keeps pulling her back into the violent world she is desperate to escape.
PEARL is a major series launch from writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Michael Gaydos that features their first brand-new original character since Jessica Jones. Fans of the Jessica Jones comic and TV show will be thrilled and delighted by this bold new direction the creative team has taken.
Tell me about it!
Pearl has some absolutely exceptional artwork by Michael Gaydos. His muted color palette across the issue works wonders with the almost dreamlike form his artwork takes. The way he draws faces works really well as you can see the emotions in each and every one that he draws. The way he draws tattoos on the characters is also really well done, and is especially good as a framing device on the first page where it shows of Pearl’s tattoo before zooming out and revealing the location of the tattoo and the rest of the area around the character. The large spread of where the market gets attacked and the palette changes to red and green is fantastic and an interesting way of presenting an action scene with how it’s split into multiple panels across each side of the page with a logo in the center.
Bendis sets up an interesting story within the issue as well as setting up all the characters in the issue with the story going forward. The premise almost has a Romeo and Juliet vibe with how these two people are on opposing sides but are so alike that they are almost drawn to each other. The small flashes of Pearl’s past regarding her father give us a small dig into her family life and where she comes from and her interactions with Mr Miike also gives some insight in that she’s trapped in a debt she can’t escape from and has to work for someone who is willing to harm her in order to get a point across.
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The issue also includes an old Batman story by Bendis and Gaydos from 2000’s The Batman Chronicles #21, “Citizen Wayne,” which prior to this year was Bendis’ first and only work with DC. The story is a black and white story framed by a six panel grid, emulating the style of movies such as Citizen Kane, on which the name is based, and is based around reporter Clark Kent talking to people who knew the recently deceased Bruce Wayne to try and find information about him. The story itself is not remastered, despite DC requesting it to be, due to Bendis wishing to have it in its original form. It’s a nice elseworld tale from a fantastic creative team.
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