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Section Zero #1
Section Zero, Vol. 1: There Is No Section Zero
A team of fearless adventurers band together to protect mankind from everything that doesn't exist! Aliens! Monsters! Lost Civilizations! If JACK KIRBY created the X-FILES it would have been SECTION ZERO!
This graphic novel by one of comics' classic creative teams--KARL KESEL (Harley Quinn, Superboy) and TOM GRUMMETT (Death of Superman, Superboy) plus pin-ups by some of the greatest artists in comics including GEORGE PEREZ (Avengers), DAVE GIBBONS (Watchmen), WALTER SIMONSON (Thor) and many more!
Collects SECTION ZERO #1-6 plus extras!
This graphic novel by one of comics' classic creative teams--KARL KESEL (Harley Quinn, Superboy) and TOM GRUMMETT (Death of Superman, Superboy) plus pin-ups by some of the greatest artists in comics including GEORGE PEREZ (Avengers), DAVE GIBBONS (Watchmen), WALTER SIMONSON (Thor) and many more!
Collects SECTION ZERO #1-6 plus extras!
- GenresComicsGraphic Novels
216 pages, Paperback
First published December 3, 2019
About the author
Karl Kesel
1,079 books42 followersKarl Kesel (Victor, New York) is an American comics writer and inker whose works have primarily been under contract for DC Comics. He is a member of Periscope Studio. In 2017, he started Panic Button Press with Tom Grummett to publish the creator-owned graphic novel Section Zero.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
April 20, 2020
Bam! Pow! Zing! Boom!
I loooooooooooove comics. I love, love, love good, action filled, awesome comics. And let me tell you, this is exactly that. An action filled, riotous, crazy comic in the classical tradition of science heroes from back in the day. The characters are very much mortal, with weapons and powers that give them supernatural abilities but pretty much human. Okay, well maybe not Sargasso or Laika, but the rest, yes. My point is, power sets aside, they are all very much mortal. Which you can't say for their nemeses.
I have entered spoiler territory, so this whole review will have to be spoiler alerted.
To start, the team behind Section Zero are not new to comics, or to working together, and they've done so before to great success. I would recommend spying out back issues of Superboy's own series from back in the 90's written by Kessel and drawn by Grummett.
Tom Grummett is to my mind one of the greatest, most underrated and talented artists working in comics today. Or any day. Right up there with Alan Davis. But like Mr. Davis, being the workhorses that they are, able to produce comics consistently and well drawn they are overlooked for the more loudmouthed, flashy creators out in the comic book industry. Which does a great disservice to our beloved medium. If we had more Grummetts and Davis' drawing comics we'd have less twitter happy creators causing controversy and not putting good books out consistently.
Tom Grummett draws very detailed, distinct characters. Sets scenes and scenarios quickly lays the mood and the pace with his beautiful artwork. He truly is a master of the sequential art. Without the need for fancy, ridiculous paneling or any of that artsy shenanigans he sets up story and paces it brilliantly. At no point in the comic was I left wondering if I should go left or right or where the narrative traveled thus bumping me out of the story. (Something Brian Bendis, God love him, does a lot of). I cannot tell you how well drawn, beautifully designed and heroic and interesting as well as unique his characters are. The man is a master of his art and renders a brilliant story, beautifully. Ably aided by his three colorists. At no point was I left feeling annoyed or upset because of bad color work, which unfortunately plagues some modern day comics since coloring has become digital. The art, in short is beyond excellent.
Which sadly, is not replicated by the story. I so wanted to give this book 5 stars. It's an awesome adventure story. An adventure tale in the classical sense featuring new and interesting characters. Unfortunately that is one of the problems with the story. It's only 6 issues and in such short space the writers try very hard to do what Marvel or DC have done in say all their years of existing. So much history is crammed into the story, and there are soooooooooo many characters and so much time compression that it suffers from the opposite of what most comics today suffer, which is drastic and dramatic decompression. This comic packs more story in a single issue than in a 6-issue run of anything Brian Bendis writes. I appreciate that. I seriously do. But at the same time, ugh, there's just too much information being bandied about. The writers are trying to info dump too much history into the story, and too much passes between the beginning and the end.
Serious spoilers now.
I love that so much is packed into every issue, even if its too much at times, but what ultimately kept this from being a perfect story was the concise and a little dull conclusion. The character of Sam Wildman is, as his name implies, a wild card, a total crazy case. And by story's end he has somehow traded Sargasso's curse with him. So, why then did Sargasso take his curse back? Simply so that Wildman could reunite with Titania Challenger. There isn't much in the story to build up that relationship, though there is a flashback of them being young and cute. More time and character is spent on their constant bickering and finished romance and yet the story becomes forced to revolve around the idea that Sam wants to get her back. Then after two failed attempts he suddenly quits and Titania is only found because of the efforts of Thom. How did Wildman deserve to have his curse removed? He didn't. Saragasso conveniently feels guilt for not really killing the immortal villains. A more contrived reason I could not write if I tried. The ending was too much necessity and not enough character growth. Wildman is still the same ass he was at the beginning only now, Titania is going to give him a chance because of some spell.
Meh, no.
Waaaaaay too much history, and a very quick and contrived ending make this just a really good story and keep it from becoming an instant classic. That said, the book is bookended by characters not in the story . . . but hinting at perhaps more story in the future.
Given that this was the first outing for Section Zero, I do hope to see them come back. And now that we've met and understand the characters somewhat, and we're versed in the history of Section Zero, here's hoping Mr. Kessel and Grummett will take us along for another awesome adventure with an equally slam, bang, crazy thrill ride and maybe some real character growth.
I still loved it, especially the art. I recommend it, and I intend to buy it (mine is a library copy) and add it to my shelf. Because this story begs to be reread a few times. I had an awesome time. It was a wonderful ride.
I loooooooooooove comics. I love, love, love good, action filled, awesome comics. And let me tell you, this is exactly that. An action filled, riotous, crazy comic in the classical tradition of science heroes from back in the day. The characters are very much mortal, with weapons and powers that give them supernatural abilities but pretty much human. Okay, well maybe not Sargasso or Laika, but the rest, yes. My point is, power sets aside, they are all very much mortal. Which you can't say for their nemeses.
I have entered spoiler territory, so this whole review will have to be spoiler alerted.
To start, the team behind Section Zero are not new to comics, or to working together, and they've done so before to great success. I would recommend spying out back issues of Superboy's own series from back in the 90's written by Kessel and drawn by Grummett.
Tom Grummett is to my mind one of the greatest, most underrated and talented artists working in comics today. Or any day. Right up there with Alan Davis. But like Mr. Davis, being the workhorses that they are, able to produce comics consistently and well drawn they are overlooked for the more loudmouthed, flashy creators out in the comic book industry. Which does a great disservice to our beloved medium. If we had more Grummetts and Davis' drawing comics we'd have less twitter happy creators causing controversy and not putting good books out consistently.
Tom Grummett draws very detailed, distinct characters. Sets scenes and scenarios quickly lays the mood and the pace with his beautiful artwork. He truly is a master of the sequential art. Without the need for fancy, ridiculous paneling or any of that artsy shenanigans he sets up story and paces it brilliantly. At no point in the comic was I left wondering if I should go left or right or where the narrative traveled thus bumping me out of the story. (Something Brian Bendis, God love him, does a lot of). I cannot tell you how well drawn, beautifully designed and heroic and interesting as well as unique his characters are. The man is a master of his art and renders a brilliant story, beautifully. Ably aided by his three colorists. At no point was I left feeling annoyed or upset because of bad color work, which unfortunately plagues some modern day comics since coloring has become digital. The art, in short is beyond excellent.
Which sadly, is not replicated by the story. I so wanted to give this book 5 stars. It's an awesome adventure story. An adventure tale in the classical sense featuring new and interesting characters. Unfortunately that is one of the problems with the story. It's only 6 issues and in such short space the writers try very hard to do what Marvel or DC have done in say all their years of existing. So much history is crammed into the story, and there are soooooooooo many characters and so much time compression that it suffers from the opposite of what most comics today suffer, which is drastic and dramatic decompression. This comic packs more story in a single issue than in a 6-issue run of anything Brian Bendis writes. I appreciate that. I seriously do. But at the same time, ugh, there's just too much information being bandied about. The writers are trying to info dump too much history into the story, and too much passes between the beginning and the end.
Serious spoilers now.
I love that so much is packed into every issue, even if its too much at times, but what ultimately kept this from being a perfect story was the concise and a little dull conclusion. The character of Sam Wildman is, as his name implies, a wild card, a total crazy case. And by story's end he has somehow traded Sargasso's curse with him. So, why then did Sargasso take his curse back? Simply so that Wildman could reunite with Titania Challenger. There isn't much in the story to build up that relationship, though there is a flashback of them being young and cute. More time and character is spent on their constant bickering and finished romance and yet the story becomes forced to revolve around the idea that Sam wants to get her back. Then after two failed attempts he suddenly quits and Titania is only found because of the efforts of Thom. How did Wildman deserve to have his curse removed? He didn't. Saragasso conveniently feels guilt for not really killing the immortal villains. A more contrived reason I could not write if I tried. The ending was too much necessity and not enough character growth. Wildman is still the same ass he was at the beginning only now, Titania is going to give him a chance because of some spell.
Meh, no.
Waaaaaay too much history, and a very quick and contrived ending make this just a really good story and keep it from becoming an instant classic. That said, the book is bookended by characters not in the story . . . but hinting at perhaps more story in the future.
Given that this was the first outing for Section Zero, I do hope to see them come back. And now that we've met and understand the characters somewhat, and we're versed in the history of Section Zero, here's hoping Mr. Kessel and Grummett will take us along for another awesome adventure with an equally slam, bang, crazy thrill ride and maybe some real character growth.
I still loved it, especially the art. I recommend it, and I intend to buy it (mine is a library copy) and add it to my shelf. Because this story begs to be reread a few times. I had an awesome time. It was a wonderful ride.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 22, 2019
This started off well with an old school vibe..solid balance of scifi humour but then it became too much.
March 11, 2026
This comic wants to do more than it has the space to pull off. All considerations of writing quality aside, there's just too much stuff going on, too many concepts thrown at you, too many plot points. I'm well-versed in genre stuff, I didn't have trouble believing in any of the pulp ideas tossed out, but I did get annoyed when there were 30-40 barely fleshed out concepts I had to keep track of across six issues.
The plot is fine, I guess. The dialogue ranges between fine and annoying (Sam Wildman is an insufferable choice for POV). No real complaints about the art, and I like the setting - I just wish it had given itself more time to breathe so we weren't constantly getting 'as you know' dialogue.
There are also a lot of things that are just really underbaked - Qing Chen, the Adamek family, whatever Keeger was up to, so on.
Some choice bits I really liked -
The plot is fine, I guess. The dialogue ranges between fine and annoying (Sam Wildman is an insufferable choice for POV). No real complaints about the art, and I like the setting - I just wish it had given itself more time to breathe so we weren't constantly getting 'as you know' dialogue.
There are also a lot of things that are just really underbaked - Qing Chen, the Adamek family, whatever Keeger was up to, so on.
Some choice bits I really liked -
February 10, 2020
I gotta say, this is one of those series that are all about being familiar with a concept. This groups is quite easily based on those science teams like Challengers of the Unknown, Fantastic Four, even the Doom Patrol. For the average reader, not so much. There is a lot of fun and drama that can only be found in these. But this intro feels underwhelming. The plot moves at a breakneck speed by the second half and there's barely any time to breathe between the timeskip. It feels like missing out on a lot potential stories. And that cliffhanger ending, there's more to come but couldn't there have been more connection to some stuff like those villains at the beginning and end. There is some great stuff to see and do, there just has to be a time to slow down and not rush things.
November 25, 2019
Awful, just awful. Dated artwork, and just the least likeable or interesting characters yacking about cryptozoology and stuff. Every five lines they HAVE to mention a past mission in an in-joke they can share with nobody. One kid turns up, says something like "who the flock are you lot?", only for him to then tell them who the flock they are five pages later. Because kids can make up their mind about the people who have rescued them with a UFO, just like that. And somebody shoot that alien ghost thing already – did I say these are annoying characters?
December 14, 2019
My favourite writer/artist team since they created the modern Superboy in 1993 reuniting to build their own Sci-Fi universe does not disappoint. So glad that the 18 year publishing gap between issues 3/4 is reflected extremely deftly in the plot, though thankfully not by a drop in the book’s quality. “X-Files meets Jack Kirby” is the elevator pitch but the book actually reads like if the cast of Hellboy subbed in for the cast of Venture Bros, mixed with the rich, barely hinted-at backstory of early Astro City. Can’t wait for more of this perfect adventure comic to hit the stands.
December 28, 2019
Some nice '80s style artwork, but the story was largely incomprehensible. It seemed like huge chunks of the story were missing.
March 4, 2020
Review submitted to Diamond Bookshelf for possible publication.
June 27, 2020
Disapointing compared to it's premise. Too many stuff introduiced to you and not gets to it's full ptential sadly. Maybe a next one volume balance things out.
July 30, 2020
Easter eggs galore!
December 31, 2020
A breath of fresh air.
January 26, 2021
Was it deep? No. Were there quite a few loose ends? Yes.
Was it Fun? Hell yeah.
Sometimes that's all a comic needs.
Was it Fun? Hell yeah.
Sometimes that's all a comic needs.
January 28, 2020
Feels the way I like comics—filled with fun, interesting characters and plots with just enough mystery to keep the pages turning.
December 1, 2019
If you love old school comics, weird super powers, strange curses, secret government agencies and cryptids, this graphic novel series is for you! Lots of fun, nothing to deep.
(A copy of this book was provided by the publisher.)
(A copy of this book was provided by the publisher.)
January 18, 2021
Started really well. Great art, interesting characters and story. But then the story jumps ahead in time with several new characters who are just there with no real introduction.
The original focus of the story is a secret group of humans, cryptids, and an alien that investigate strange creatures and incidents. There are some flashbacks to past teams that made me want a prequel even before I had gotten thru chapter 2. Creatures are mysteriously appearing and disappearing and that part of the story is the most interesting. When a team member disappears into a strange portal, the focus of the story changes and really loses some steam.
The ending was kind of flat because it felt like it only ended the last 2-3 issues which were a bit rushed feeling already, and not as good as the first part of the book.
I did enjoy the concept, and hope there is another volume in the future.
The original focus of the story is a secret group of humans, cryptids, and an alien that investigate strange creatures and incidents. There are some flashbacks to past teams that made me want a prequel even before I had gotten thru chapter 2. Creatures are mysteriously appearing and disappearing and that part of the story is the most interesting. When a team member disappears into a strange portal, the focus of the story changes and really loses some steam.
The ending was kind of flat because it felt like it only ended the last 2-3 issues which were a bit rushed feeling already, and not as good as the first part of the book.
I did enjoy the concept, and hope there is another volume in the future.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews