I like it!
The thing I noticed about the first two panels of Nimona is how quickly and efficiently it set the mood of the strip. The variation of line and tone are simple and yet somehow combine to provide me with the knowledge that we are now in some sort of super- nefarious lair, and Nimona is not at all afraid of it.
I have to say how much I like her right away, I’m not even half way through the comic but I do admire her. Maybe it has to do with her expressions, her quirky sense of humor, her trauma based rage, or maybe it’s because she’s not another busty waif with oodles of wavy hair and pouted lips that are just sure to create sexual tension. No, Nimona’s not like that, she has character.
Which is perhaps why I buy her story. I mean, let’s say I was a shape shifter and I was prone to violent bouts of criminality; I might go into business for myself instead of being servile to another villain like she chose to do with Balister Blackheart. She could be a force to be reckoned with on her own so why team up? I’ve come to believe it’s her various childhood complexities that informs on her but you’ll have to read it for yourself to see if you agree!
Blackhart deserves mention too for being a kind of ‘golden age’ villain, complete with chivalrous codes and a maiming backstory. I just love his replacement arm by the way. And I even love that the gilded ‘hero’ Goldenloin, being so insecure that he is unable to take even a single defeat without vicious retaliation. Here in ‘Nimona’ as in life, there is no clear hero, only people fraught with flaws. Just like I like ‘em.
And the art! Even the dialogue bubbles are visually interesting!. In a scene where there is no ‘action’ I am never bored, there is more than enough to look at; plenty of positive and negative space to play in. Chapter 5, page 7 for instance, is two people and a desk, which normally ought to be boring but the artist does so much with line and color that it makes ‘Nimona’ a Webcomic to come back to.
