ExtraOrdinaries are people who were close to death but survived. That traumatic experience gives them amazing abilities that defy reality. Find out more in ExtraOrdinary #1 by Titan Comics!

EXTRAORDINARY #1
Writer: V.E. Schwab
Artist: Enid Balam
Colorist: Jordi Escuin Llorach
Letterer: Rob Steen
Editor: David Leach
Publisher: Titan Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: June 23rd, 2021
Previously in ExtraOrdinary: Charlotte Tills was a average teenager travelling on a school bus until she was in a deadly accident. When she recovered, she gained the ability to see a person’s death. Unfortunately, she looks in the mirror and sees a man who is destined to kill her!
BAD INTENTIONS
ExtraOrdinary #1 begins at Lockland University where Eliot Ever and Victor Vale are studying. For Eli’s senior thesis, he researches the myth of ExtraOrdinaries and creates an experiment to become one himself. With Victor’s help he becomes close to death and resurrects, giving him the ability to not be killed. However, Victor also wants a superpower and conducts the experiment with his ex-girlfriend, Angie (and Eli’s current girlfriend). He gains the ability to control electricity and accidently causes an explosion that kills Angie. Eli swears revenge and declares that no one should ever have this ability. Unfortunately, he is caught by the police and Victor is saved.
Eliot gets into his head that he must kill every EO because they are an affront to God and goes on a murder spree. Eventually, he encounters Victor and kills him. He is arrested and sent to an EON prison. From his cell, he helps the EON hunt down the ExtraOrdinaries and they set their sights on Charlotte showing that her vision may indeed come true.
MISGUIDED
I’ll start off my review of ExtraOrdinary #1 by stating that this story is extremely gruesome and gritty in nature. But I was thrown out of the story when both main characters had alliteration in their name. It is such a comic book name but this is a gritty down to earth book, not a superhero story. Is it supposed to ease us into the plot? It just doesn’t match the tone the rest of the story.
Now that I got that out of the way, Eli is interesting villain because he regrets making himself a superpowered being. He claims to be a religious man but never considered that his actions are against his god’s will. Which strikes me as an odd motivation. I want to see more about his reasonings. The story gave me a little bit, but it mostly set up who the antagonist to Charlotte is. I hope that he doesn’t just become a villain as we return to Charlotte’s point of view, because I can’t quite see his logic quite yet.
BOTTOM LINE: SOLID START
I admit that when I opened ExtraOrdinary #1, I was disappointed that Charlotte wasn’t the point of view character. Charlotte’s story in the issue #0 was a great hook. Luckily, Eliot also was a great point of view that help restart my interest for the series. ExtraOrdinary #1 is a 4 out of 5 for me. Solid art and engaging writing leave me excited for the next comic.
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ExtraOrdinary #1
ExtraOrdinary #1 presents us with Charlotte's antagonist in a believable, if not misguided, way.
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Writing8
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Art7
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Coloring8