REVIEW: Armored Eagle 1-3

Creative Team:

Creator, Illustrator, Writer, Letterer – Erik Carrillo
Colorist – Edwin Carrillo
Editor – Michael Caprood

About the Submission:

A collection of 15 comics of superheroes from different points in time and cultures that come together to face the ultimate threat of the invasive Anunnaki. Under the guidance of E.H.V.A. (a secret organization that deals with enhanced humans and various anomalies), Our heroes will need to work together in order to fight off this extraterrestrial threat. 

(This review is on the first three books.)

Rating: 3.00

Story – 1 (A fantastic story concept. One that isn’t seen commonly.)
Art – .75 (Art went well with the story, some may feel not topnotch.)
Dialogue – .75 (Dialogue fit however, there were instances that removed me from the story)
Editing – .25 (This area should be studied more.)
Mechanics – .25 (Mistakes with lettering took a huge hit here.)

Reviewer Notes:

Armored Eagle is a comic book that wants the readers to know that it aims for a different feel and, it does a fantastic job doing this in the story the creator decided to tell. It told a sweeping tale, from beginning to end, following the protagonist from birth to what would seem like his end or, maybe, beginning. Erik took alien legend and lore and turned it on its head, doing something I have yet to see in comics as it graciously brought in the Aztec people, fantasizing the kingdom in modern comic book literature.

The original plan was to read issue one and review that, working through the pantheon that ERCU Comics has built (15 books thus far in an interconnected universe) but, I couldn’t stop reading. Intrigue hit, and I wanted to know what happened next, and then, after continuing so that I could see what would happen in issue 2, I knew that I wouldn’t stop there so, I went to issue 3, and now, I want to know what happens next in issue 4. Keeping the reader intrigued, and wanting to know what happens next, is something that I feel is missing from indie comics and, Erik did a great job of keeping me, the reader, engaged and wanting more.

While the story is excellent, there are some faults, and that’s to be expected. This story seems like it was the first in the group of titles from the small press publisher so, I expected mistakes, and I hope to see these mistakes altered in future stories from them as they continue to grow and expand on their universe. 

Many of those mistakes were through editing choices and while indie, there is a comic culture that needs to be followed when creating a comic book as many readers picking up the book will be seasoned comic readers. One of those issues was the choice to use an asterisk (*) to represent a different language. Using it initially to inform the reader that another language is being used is standard practice. However, in comics, that is done once. Then, the representation of language is continued by using angle brackets (<>) at the beginning and end of the dialogue being said by the character. 

The (*) is customarily used to mark something that needs to be explained by the editor. So, this felt off to me for the first couple of pages until I realized what was going on. It continued throughout the entire group of issues, so; I can’t be too disappointed; it was consistent. Another issue is a big no-no in lettering, and that’s crossing the tails of chat balloons. The chat balloons should be positioned to where this never happens and, that will take some practice. When I saw this, I looked into the panel to see if the chat balloons could be altered to alleviate this issue and, at all times but one, the balloons could be placed in a manner to where the tails would have never crossed. In one of the instances, the panel was too small to fit the amount of dialogue. Crossing tails shows rookie errors and needs to be avoided in the future as growth continues. 

I see another common mistake in indie comics, and this book made it as well, using a cross-bared letter “I” outside of character representation. Common customs in comics are using the uncrossed letter “I” in other capitalization points that aren’t the character talking about themselves directly.

The dialogue read well, and I only ran into a couple of instances where it took me out of the story. As I mentioned above, most of the time, I didn’t want to stop reading it. The art was consistent throughout the book, and I think it fits the book’s overall style. Some may feel that it’s not topnotch but, it works, and it does well in telling the story and staying as consistent as possible.

Overall, I feel that this is a title that others should read. The story is excellent, and you can tell that it’s building lore that will be sure to grip future fans.