When a superhero is brutally murdered, his childhood friends are drawn back into each other’s lives. But one of them may have done the deed. Your Major Spoilers review of The Tin Can Society #1, awaits!

THE TIN CAN SOCIETY #1

Writer: Peter Warren
Artist: Francesco Mobili
Colorist: Chris Chuckry
Letterer: Rus Wooton
Editor: Harper Jaten
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: October 23rd, 2024

Previously in The Tin Can Society: Johnny Moore is a world-famous tech mogul known as much for his work pioneering mobility aids for people with disabilities (like himself) as he is for moonlighting as the metal-suited vigilante, Caliburn. As a child, he had a group of friends who called themselves The Tin Can Society.

“IS EVERYONE COMING?”

The Tin Can Society #1 opens with a full-page image of a superhero brutally beaten with his head mostly gone. Kasia is a photographer taking pictures of the crime scene, she then remembers when she first met the victim when they were kids. Johnny Moore was a new kid at school with a few disabilities and a rough upbringing. Kasia and four others become his friends. Kasia discovers something about the murder that is related to one of their other friends, Adam. Kasia visits him and informs him about the murder. Adam is revealed to have been closer than most to Johnny. He asks if everyone will be at the funeral. Kasia then visits another friend who’s a teacher and was into science with Johnny but refuses to put up his picture in a collage of notable alumni from the school. Later on, Kasia sells her photos of the crime scene and is visited at home by Greg, an actor who had become Johnny’s sidekick when he became a superhero. The next day is the funeral, which is attended by thousands. It’s also where Kasia reveals she thinks one of the friends killed Johnny.

MAGNETS, HOW DO THEY WORK?

The Tin Can Society #1 comes off as the epitome of “scratching the surface”. It’s one of those rare occurrences where it doesn’t give a lot of information away beyond some backstory and setup but also makes the reader confident that there is definitely more to this story and that it’ll be worth looking into. This is in part due to how effective each scene was in conveying some important aspect of a character or a relationship; there’s no filler here. One of the best tricks this issue pulls is the use of a repetitive narrative structure. Kasia visits or is visited by an old friend, one after another, but each scene leads into the next naturally, but then they all end the same way with the friend asking if everyone is going to be at the funeral. It’s a clever way to show that even in the face of this tragedy, their most pressing concern is if they’re going to have to see everyone else. With that being said, there is one thing that doesn’t fully work here and it’s the thing that casts suspicion on everyone, magnets. Considering that the main focus so far has been more about personal relationships and not about the nitty gritty of the crime, having a piece of evidence be so out of left field leaves things feeling clunky. This then leads to some characters being bloated with details that don’t actually have a lot of thought put into them other than how it establishes this connection.

TRADING CLARITY FOR STYLE

The Tin Can Society #1 is a very good-looking comic book. Characters have a discernable expression, they look distinct from one another, there’s mood baked into the backgrounds and setting. There are a few moments though where the sequence of events is difficult to work out because it seems like they were trying to do something that looks like a shot from a movie, but it doesn’t really work here because there’s no motion to add context to things.

BOTTOM LINE: I’M ON BOARD

The Tin Can Society #1 makes a bold move in kicking off its series the same way some of the most famous comic book series have, with the brutal death of a superhero and then a subsequent investigation. But it pays off because by the end of this first issue, Tin Can Society establishes a tone that is unique from all the other stories that have similar beginnings and shows promise that it will go places that those stories couldn’t. Some odd plot details and some not-so-successful visual elements keep this from being perfect, but that doesn’t keep me from recommending this one. 4 out of 5 stars.

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