Publisher: Action Lab Entertainment
Writer: Shawn Gabborin
Artist: Chad Cicconi
Editor: Vito Delsante
Release Date: OUT NOW!
Price: $3.99

Those nice and family friendly people at Action Lab Entertainment are using a New Rating System to help you, the ever fragile reader, decide which of Action Lab Entertainment comic books are the most suitable for your age group.

Therefore, Actionverse #1 Featuring Fracture is rated “A” which means it is appropriate for ages 9 and up. The company and the character are both new to me so I wasn’t sure just what to make of the rating system and do we even need it? The old Comic Code eventually fell into disrepute and I can’t help but wonder who makes that kind of decision and what makes 9 some kind of watershed? Not that any of that matters as far as the content of Actionverse #1 is concerned.

The art for Actionverse #1 Featuring Fracture is straightforward, clear and primary coloured. The hero, Virtue, is some kind of amnesiac split personality type from another world who takes a very dim view of criminals, some of whom don’t even make it to the authorities for due processing.

The narrator of Actionverse #1 Featuring Fracture is Kyle Scordato, Virtue’s wannabe sidekick/counterpart from their home world who has some kind of score to settle and decides the best way to do it is to destroy worlds. That’s right, “worlds” plural. This is not his first rodeo but we’d better hope it’s his last.

The storytelling in Actionverse #1 Featuring Fracture is slightly simplistic, perhaps in keeping with that “A” rating, but the degree of action/violence and the underlying themes are vivid and complex enough to grab the attention of the more mature reader. Add to that a range and variety of characters that is entertaining and inventive: my favourites are the Guild of Pain and Mr Macabre, and you have a tightly controlled package in Actionverse #1 Featuring Fracture with wide-ranging appeal beyond, in reality, any rating system restrictions.

 

Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker