We're four issues into the "Horizon" series at Image Comics, which I thought would be a good time to look at it.

I say that because I thought the first issue did a good job at grabbing my attention, but didn't push me far enough into the story to feel satisfied. This is really a series that would have benefitted, I think, from a double sized first issue. It has a couple extra pages, but it's not enough.

Let me set the series up before we go any deeper: "Horizon" is about aliens who come to earth to stop the humans before they invade the aliens' planet. It's a nice reversal on the usual alien invasion story. Written by Brandon Thomas, it's drawn by Juan Gedeon, with Frank Martin handling the colors and Rus Wooton the lettering. Skybound Entertainment is the home inside Image Comics for the series.

In the first issue, we follow an alien woman who falls to earth, colliding against a satellite or two and a mountain along the way. She's the head of the group, we eventually find out, and through her we see some of the tricks the aliens have up their sleeves. Basically, they're humanoids who have sufficient tech to look like an earth human and walk amongst us undetected. They also have higher technology to give them both stronger firepower and the ability to hack some tech systems.

This leader, Zhia Malen, first tracks down the doctor who can help patch her up from that crash landing before they go find the rest of their kind, one of whom is not responding.

But the first issue is a little underwhelming, probably because there's zero conflict in it. Zhia crash lands, she wanders around, she heals herself, she meets up with her doctor, and they together vow to stop humanity. It's an internal conflict of Alien Versus Herself, really. Can she heal herself and find her friends so they can get to work?

There are sequences in the first issue that are clever and cinematic, but don't propel me along as much as those in even the second issue do.

In that second issue, though, things ramp up. We see the group come together and they start to tussle with humanity's forces. There's running-and-gunning, a stronger time element, a sense of danger to the aliens, and the first signs that humanity is up to something. They know the aliens exist and they are making plans. Up until that point, we had to take the aliens' word that they were in trouble.

The humans have captured one of the aliens and that becomes the center of the second, third, and fourth issues. The aliens are after their own and they'll stop at nothing to get him back. That forms the basis for the strongest moments in the series to date. The fourth issue has some pre-invasion flashbacks that give us a little more detail on the personal relationships of the characters, which helps to -- pardon the word -- humanize them.

The Chase

The end of the third issue and first nine page or so of the fourth form one of the best action scenes I've read in comics in recent memory.

It's tough to pull off a car chase. But artist Juan Gedeon does it with style and a strong sense of pacing. He propels the action with clear visuals. Thomas' script holds itself back, with just enough dialogue to give the reader an idea of what's going on and to add a bit to the drumbeat of the scene, for lack of a better word.

It's hard to describe, but the short bursts of dialogue back and forth feel like they're matching the frenzied rhythm of the sequence. All the little sound effects strewn throughout, with the guns firing and the car tires squealing and the occasional explosions, add to that. Rus Wooton integrates those well with the art, never overpowering it. The sound effects help tell you what's going on. When a character raises a gun, for example, the "KA-CHUKK" sound effect feels like they're cocking a rifle.

Spoiler alert: A car dramatically flips over during the chase.

The Art

Gedeon's art reminds me a bit of Paul Azaceta's, to name one comparison point. He even does the inset panels like Azaceta favors on "Outcast." His artwork has a more open style, without too many solid black areas. He'll also leave out details very quickly for anything not meant to be in sharp focus. Background characters become outlines, for example, and even foreground characters will be missing detail in favor of the stark simplicity of the drawing. Gedeon isn't trying to draw photoreferenced perfect humans. He's a cartoonist, sketching out their outlines and dropping in details when it makes sense.

That all said, his cars are clearly photoreferenced. It reminds me a lot of what I said about Salvador Larroca's work in "Darth Vader" last week: the position of artist on a comic often comes closer to the work of a director on a film. Drawing technical things isn't the most creative thing in the world; it's how you tell the story with them and how you move the camera around that is the biggest part of the job.

Trace that Jeep if you need to, so long as it matches the level of detail in the rest of the art and tells the story well. Gedeon's cars, while clearly heavily referenced, are still simplified to match the art. He's not drawing every seam and every detail in the car, just as he doesn't with the characters' clothes or hair. It's a match. That's all that counts.

Colors are by Frank Martin, who does exactly the kind of job a colorist should do with an art style like this. He matches it, coloring areas in mostly bold open colors, creating cut shadows that are simple, but add to the dimensionality of the drawings. He can shade undrawn ulnas. (See image below.) Color plays a very important part in this series, from the blue/green skin of the aliens to their glowing eyes and any bright and shiny alien tech.

Should You Read It?

If you haven't been picking up the issues, I'd say it's safe to wait for the trade.

The fifth issue is due out next week, and it will throw more hints out there as to this world's back story that are intriguing. It also is setting up a sixth issue that looks to be the all-action finale to the first storyline. (I received an advance copy of the issue literally as I was writing this review, coincidentally.)

If they can stick the landing on this first arc, I'd give it a thumbs up.

It does still feel a little bit like they're throwing more and more stuff out there without putting the pieces together yet. I'd like to see some explicit connections made and maybe even a solid focus to the series. Right now, even through the fifth issue, it still feels like everyone's running around doing stuff to each other, but I'm not sure to what end or why -- and then it feels like it changes as quickly.

"Horizon" is a series with a lot of promise and some solid sequences. I'm enjoying reading it, and hoping for the best in the next couple of issues.

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