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Patriot-1
Delta Force Operator Ken Baker is the lone survivor of an attack in Afghanistan. Upon escaping captivity, he finds himself embroiled in a conspiracy that results in a team from the CIA's Special Activities Division seeking his help to unravel the mystery of Operation Quisling. Lies, deception and betrayals leave Baker wondering what he fights for and who he can really trust. As the war in Afghanistan has all but ended, the conspiracy soon reveals a new and bigger threat, one that prompts Baker to make a unique statement in super-heroic fashion. Features character files and alternate cover gallery.
202 pages, Paperback
First published October 15, 2014
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 28, 2022
Searching through Indiegogo I saw this comic pop up, and describing itself as a grittier type of Captain America, and as Captain America: Winter Soldier is my favourite Marvel film, I thought why not? and gave it go.
Afghanistan. A US Tier 1 special forces team ambushed while searching for the head of a new deadly terrorist group: Tigers Fist. Captured, soldier Kenny ‘Phantom’ Baker has seen his team killed, and watched his commanding officer executed before his eyes. In a blaze of gunfire, he escapes to be picked up by an elite, secret CIA team, who are hunting the terrorist leader, El-Hazim. Baker now is thrust into a cat and mouse game, where the CIA believe that El-Hazim is working on conjunction with both a massive multinational corporation and a mole within the US military. Baker, who was about to be discharged, but finds a new purpose to stop El-Hazim and find the man who betrayed both his team and his country.
I think many would have backed this, with the description of a sort of more military heavy Captain America but after reading it, it less of a bog-standard Captain America story and more just a bog-standard military action thriller. I mean Baker doesn't have any special powers, or any of the team, the bad guys aren't supervillains nor is their plot is one that could be described as a particular supervillain like. I mean the only sort of thing that could be described as superhero material, is the bulletproof suit that Baker starts wearing 2/3rds of the way through, and he doesn’t get his ‘superhero’ name Patriot-1 until near the end.
I would have described it less of a gritty Captain America and more of a gritty version of GI Joe, maybe. But really the plot of sinister mega-corporations, terrorist plots, a secret traitorous mole and a tough guy soldier avenging his deceased team are 10 a penny in the military thriller genre. I mean it isn't bad, is just one type of plot that is really common. The characters are for the most part, standard stock characters from stories like this; tough badasses, arguments about which comes first the mission or the team, evil businessmen, talks on patriotism that tip over into a bit cringey. Nothing comes across as bad and ruins everything, but aside from some good action scenes, much of it seems very much by the numbers with nothing that stands out.
The villian, El-Hazim I was interested in and seemed the most original character, as he wasn't a fundamentalist and seemed to want to improve his country and modernise (with him in charge obviously) and was using our being used by the evil company for their own ends. But he was just portrayed as evil terrorist man, and that was about his depth. Baker, or Patriot-1, didn't really make the story his own. For the main character I found him a bit bland. His whole reason on becoming Patriot-1, to help the world and show America can be trusted. That's all well and good, but it usually involves machine gunning foreign people. I mean I’m not a pacifist, but his aims on a more trustworthy and reliable America the world can trust seems to involve special forces raids into foreign countries. Perhaps if the villains were more fleshed out or that their grand plan made clear, perhaps it would have made Baker stand out more and make his methods more understandable.
Overall, I’d say it was just a bit average. I mean you get a lot of comic here, it's a nice long graphic novel. The art, while similar to a lot of other indie books, is pretty good, with the gun battles that really standout. With a cast of by the numbers action figures, with a main character that I feel fails to carry the story with a villainous plot that's a bit too vague to either exciting or menacing, I think the book fails to tick enough boxes to make it a must read.
Will I read any more? I'm not sure. Maybe if there’s a noticeable improvement in the story I might be tempted. While like I said it's not terrible, there's not much there for me to recommend. If you like action stories, you might get something out of it, but I’d say they are better reads out The Losers Omnibus, Vol. 1 and even other Kickstarter books like IRON SIGHTS and Jawbreakers – Lost Souls. A bit of a disappointment.
Afghanistan. A US Tier 1 special forces team ambushed while searching for the head of a new deadly terrorist group: Tigers Fist. Captured, soldier Kenny ‘Phantom’ Baker has seen his team killed, and watched his commanding officer executed before his eyes. In a blaze of gunfire, he escapes to be picked up by an elite, secret CIA team, who are hunting the terrorist leader, El-Hazim. Baker now is thrust into a cat and mouse game, where the CIA believe that El-Hazim is working on conjunction with both a massive multinational corporation and a mole within the US military. Baker, who was about to be discharged, but finds a new purpose to stop El-Hazim and find the man who betrayed both his team and his country.
I think many would have backed this, with the description of a sort of more military heavy Captain America but after reading it, it less of a bog-standard Captain America story and more just a bog-standard military action thriller. I mean Baker doesn't have any special powers, or any of the team, the bad guys aren't supervillains nor is their plot is one that could be described as a particular supervillain like. I mean the only sort of thing that could be described as superhero material, is the bulletproof suit that Baker starts wearing 2/3rds of the way through, and he doesn’t get his ‘superhero’ name Patriot-1 until near the end.
I would have described it less of a gritty Captain America and more of a gritty version of GI Joe, maybe. But really the plot of sinister mega-corporations, terrorist plots, a secret traitorous mole and a tough guy soldier avenging his deceased team are 10 a penny in the military thriller genre. I mean it isn't bad, is just one type of plot that is really common. The characters are for the most part, standard stock characters from stories like this; tough badasses, arguments about which comes first the mission or the team, evil businessmen, talks on patriotism that tip over into a bit cringey. Nothing comes across as bad and ruins everything, but aside from some good action scenes, much of it seems very much by the numbers with nothing that stands out.
The villian, El-Hazim I was interested in and seemed the most original character, as he wasn't a fundamentalist and seemed to want to improve his country and modernise (with him in charge obviously) and was using our being used by the evil company for their own ends. But he was just portrayed as evil terrorist man, and that was about his depth. Baker, or Patriot-1, didn't really make the story his own. For the main character I found him a bit bland. His whole reason on becoming Patriot-1, to help the world and show America can be trusted. That's all well and good, but it usually involves machine gunning foreign people. I mean I’m not a pacifist, but his aims on a more trustworthy and reliable America the world can trust seems to involve special forces raids into foreign countries. Perhaps if the villains were more fleshed out or that their grand plan made clear, perhaps it would have made Baker stand out more and make his methods more understandable.
Overall, I’d say it was just a bit average. I mean you get a lot of comic here, it's a nice long graphic novel. The art, while similar to a lot of other indie books, is pretty good, with the gun battles that really standout. With a cast of by the numbers action figures, with a main character that I feel fails to carry the story with a villainous plot that's a bit too vague to either exciting or menacing, I think the book fails to tick enough boxes to make it a must read.
Will I read any more? I'm not sure. Maybe if there’s a noticeable improvement in the story I might be tempted. While like I said it's not terrible, there's not much there for me to recommend. If you like action stories, you might get something out of it, but I’d say they are better reads out The Losers Omnibus, Vol. 1 and even other Kickstarter books like IRON SIGHTS and Jawbreakers – Lost Souls. A bit of a disappointment.
Displaying 1 of 1 review