3 out of 4 stars
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The Wall is the first issue in what is described as 'a four-part paranormal fiction thriller meant to challenge and explore the true nature of our spiritual and moral conscience'. The story follows The Wrecking Crew, a group of men who go from United Nations soldiers to gun-for-hire mercenaries for a corrupt president after having a career-altering experience with demons in Afghanistan. The Wrecking Crew consists of five men who go by the nicknames Terminator, Bananas, Scorpion, DMoney and Cap, who is their leader. We follow the crew ten years after the incident with the demons, where they have been dishonorably discharged from the United Nations army and are now hired by the President of the United States of America to protect his family during his rallies, specifically along the border wall separating Mexico and the United States. When the President and his family's lives become endangered by a secret organization known as the Shadows, the Wrecking Crew must follow, find, and eliminate the threat. This journey leads them onto a path of blood, betrayal, and more mysteries of the paranormal.
In Chapter One, I almost immediately made a side-note that the author does a fantastic job at painting each character as an individual. He does this by not merely describing what they look like, but by giving them all a unique voice and personality. That being said, I never particularly liked any of the characters. I found them vulgar, misogynistic and cruel... and I believe that is exactly how I was supposed to feel about them. It is clear that the Wrecking Crew are not supposed to be the good and wonderful protagonists in this issue, and that is further seen in Chapter 6 when Cap thinks to himself "When had he decided to emulate Red Skull instead of Captain America?". I appreciated in the Author's Note when Some Guy writes what is almost an apology about the racist and misogynistic things that the crew members said. He notes that he felt it was necessary because of who he needed the characters to be, and I think he did a great job at creating the characters and the story. I rate The Wall by Some Guy 3 out of 4 stars.
Obviously 'Some Guy' is a pen name, and I was immediately intrigued by that choice. I was curious why an author would choose such an ambiguous pen name, and read on his Amazon page that he wishes to be 'remembered for his writing, not for who he is'. To be honest, I go back and forth between finding it brave and finding it unprofessional. I must admit that a lack of an author's name has made me want to know more about the creator of the story. Although I cannot give a name credit to the author, I can say that the illustrator, Nikita Vasilchuk, did a phenomenal job on the seven art pieces in the issue. I felt that each piece (there is one per chapter) wonderfully visually depicted what happens in each section. The warm colors used throughout were also very appropriate to keep the desert-like atmosphere present, seeing as the story is set between the desert in Afghanistan and the South-West United States. I should also add that I appreciated the parallels between present-day politics and the warped reality shown in the issue. Between presidential rallies, the border wall, a female politician named 'Hillary Dixon' and a corrupt President of the United States (who seemed to be described as a mix between George Bush and Donald Trump), I was very impressed with how real the story became to me.
The reason that The Wall failed to get all 4 stars from me was that there are some significant editing errors throughout the issue that I felt were really obvious. There are two Chapter 6's, font inconsistencies throughout (all which I have noted and can happily provide), and the female reporter who is repeatedly described as being a redhead is depicted in the artwork as having blonde hair. Additionally, there are inconsistencies in the character names. Three out of the five members of The Wrecking Crew are named slightly differently between Chapter 1 and the Epilogue (Thurston Akiyama to Thurston Wong, Ollie MacDonald to Ollie McDonald, and Noam Dayan to Noam Dylan). The main character, Cap, also goes through a name change between Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 (Forge Qaletaqa to Joey Gunns), but even though it is not really explained I do believe that was intentional as it is clearly shown that it is the same character. A spelling error that I noted was that 'epilogue' is spelled incorrectly (it is spelled as 'epilouge' in the issue). All of the errors listed are easily fixed and do not take away from the story, so I believe that the author just needs to go back and polish the issue.
There is strong language and graphic violence depicted in the story, so I believe that it is only appropriate for a mature audience of at least 16 years of age. There is a mix of army, political, and paranormal topics but I believe that the paranormal aspect is the most influential to the target audience. Using myself as an example, I would usually not read political fiction or any sort of army/war story, however I am a big science fiction and fantasy fan, and therefor I really enjoyed the story. I also believe that most comic book and graphic novel fans would enjoy the story as I have found that a huge amount of stories in those genres tend to be intensely violent and full of paranormal flourish. The author writes that each issue is told from a different character perspective, and gives a spoiler at the end in the Author's Note that Cap still has more story to tell. Although I did not find the spoiler necessary, I would be keen to read the next three issues of The Wall to see where Cap, The Wrecking Crew, and the mysterious Shadows end up. I hope that Some Guy goes back and edits the inconsistencies out and I look forward to the next release.
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The Wall
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