Pilot Season: Anonymous #1
Created by Matt Hawkins, Alan McElroy
Written by Alan McElroy
Art by Michael Montenant
Colors by Phil Smith
Letters by Troy Peteri
Cover by Eric Jones
Top Cow Productions
Release Date: November 9th, 2011
Cover Price: $3.99

Pilot Season: Anonymous #1 is a very interesting read that could have been a great one, if not for a few things. The thing that I don’t care for in the current Top Cow studios is that there’s really no Top Cow “style” anymore. It used to be, when you picked up a Top Cow book, you knew EXACTLY what you were getting. A certain art style, a familiar method of story telling, it felt like a cohesive universe. Unfortunately, that luxury is gone now.

While not a bad comic, the first vibe that I got from Anonymous #1 was “boy, they are really gonna try and sell this to Hollywood as a movie or TV series.” Writer Alan McElroy does a nice job of telling the story of a soldier coming home from war very different than the man he left as. The book just seemed a little too familiar to me. Parts Punisher, parts big action movie that I know I’ve seen before, there just wasn’t enough original material in it to make me love the book.

Artist Michael Montenant is a capable artist, but I’d like to see him step it up a notch. A lot of his characters look too much alike and had me confused a few times. He does a great job with military scenes, which are hard to pull off for a lot of artists. All in all, it seemed a little rushed and I wish that he’d taken a little more time with it.

This issue was good, but not great. If the creative team had come up with just a couple more original ideas to throw in, it would’ve been a very entertaining book. But, as it is, I got the feeling that I’ve read this book before. Many times.