The Anchor #3 (Boom! – Hester / Churilla)
Captured by the U.S. military, The Anchor must abide by his pledge to never harm humans even if it means sitting idly while a horrific new monster destroys the city of Rome. Can Matthew’s ghost free The Anchor before it’s too late? Order this book or suffer his wrath!
This is the third issue in a row where I have been a tad apprehensive in starting to read The Anchor because I was wondering where it was going. The whole “warrior from God” storyline usually ends up either being incredibly heavy handed and cheesy or straight out mocking people of faith, the direction usually depends on the opinion of the writer. Phil Hester does one the best jobs I have ever seen of creating a character that has no problem giving praise and stating his devotion to the Almighty without making that character a total joke.
The Anchor has devoted his existence to God and is a defender of the Faith and of Heaven. He is on Earth fighting demonic baddies because there has been a breach in the gates of Hell. This plot has all the potential to be the cheesiest thing this side of the Left Behind movies, but that’s the thing, it’s not. I have always been a fan of Hester’s, but The Anchor truly shows how brilliant he can be.
I take my faith pretty seriously and like I said I am usually apprehensive at the least when someone tries to take Judea-Christian beliefs and turn them into something action packed, simply because most of the time it falls under the category of epic fail. Either they are are simply too low of production quality and trite (Left Behind Movies or the endless array of “Christian” comics you find in artists alley) or they end up twisting the beliefs at the heart of the story (Seventh Sign, End of Days, etc.). If there are any Hollywood writers out there still looking to make that faith-based action movie, you need to check out The Anchor.
Issue Three sees what I can only believe to be the forming of a support team (military general, historian and ghost boy) around God’s strong arm. It moves fast and streamlined enough that it is a quick read but has enough meat that you wish next month’s course was already here! Along with the fantastic narrative, Brian Churilla continues to deliver gorgeous pages and frames. Churilla’s unique style here has just enough detail to know what is going on but nothing more than that to distract you. For my money, his art is perfect for action sequences. Going through his sequential art it gives the reader same perception that they might have if they were pumping with adrenaline and being chased, flowing along without ever hovering on any one thing or person too long.
The Anchor is one of the most original high-quality books to come out of 2009!
Issue Grade: A
