MOST: a webcomic review

Synopsis Review

MOST  (updated each Monday) is the odd title of a webcomic written, drawn, colored, etc. by eighteen-year-old Richard Nyquist.

Before you ask, I've searched in vain for an explanation of the name, but so far haven't really received one.  I suppose the basic idea is that just as "most" is a superlative word, the two teenage superheroes (Ion and Echo) upon whom the comic focuses are also superlative.  

Nyquist makes clear that his protagonists are fairly new to the super-gig, describing his work as "kind of a coming-of-age type story."  The first two issues seem to be tracing an arc of how the boys will handle  being "left in charge" of crime-fighting in Skyhill City, when its premiere superhero Safeguard departs to "another corner of this galaxy" to intercept an emerging (but unspecified) planetary threat. 

In addition to shared Christian convictions that come through in the wholesomeness of his work, another thing I appreciate about Nyquist is his homage to the classic comics format.  A prime example is his inclusion of a "letters page" following his first issue.  Yes, it's nothing but a reformatting of emails and blog post comments...but there's just something about it that warms my heart and takes me back to being that little kid who had the world at his fingertips and hours of fun ahead of him anytime his parents dropped a mere 75 cents for an escape into superherodom.

MOST is a colorful, fun adventure with bombastic battle sequences between our bantering heroes and their dastardly foes. And while Ion and Echo aren’t the most skilled or powerful guys on the block, they’re not going to let that stop them!

If you're looking for a light, fun, wholesome superhero comic this is a good option.  This comic is available to everyone for free, but it does cost time and money to produce. If you find something you like here, consider tossing a few shekels into Nyquist's Patreon account in gratitude.
 

Sustainability - 2

Despite the fact that the comic is only about seven months old, Nyquist has kept up a pretty consistent posting schedule.  This leads me to believe the sustainability of this comic at least deserves the original rating I gave to Miss Melee. 

Language - 5

Thanks (I assume) to Nyquist's Christian convictions, the language in Most is very clean and kid-friendly.

Violence - 5

The "violence" in here is so mild and cartoon-y I don't really think it's worth worrying about. (Nyquist's homage to the old Comics Code Authority seal--inset in the upper right corner of the cover image--proclaims itself a "graphic novel without graphic violence." Unless you thought the old Filmation stuff like He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was too violent, you won't find anything objectionable here. 

Sexuality - 5

Again, I can see no reason to worry about inappropriate sexual themes/imagery here.  I'd have no hesitancy about letting my kids read this.

Political Leanings - 3

Though two issues may not be enough to get a full picture, thus far Nyquist doesn't appear to be pushing any identifiable political position.

Morality - 3

I feel like the "3" rating here deserves some explanation.  It's not that there's any bad morals being promoted in Nyquist's work.  Rather, it's just that there's not a lot of overtly-expressed moral messages.  Personally, I much prefer that to clumsy self-righteous moralizing.  This is a sensitive area and one in which "less-is-more" is a solid rule of thumb.  

Bottom line:  I appreciate Nyquist's light touch here. 

Artwork - 1

The sole weak spot of Most is the artwork.  I hesitate to write that sentence, as Nyquist is doing everything himself (and his artwork is still a sight better than anything I could produce).  Doing it all alone and maintaining a weekly posting schedule could very well be creating constraints that keep him from bringing his "A game."  My unsolicited advice would be that Nyquist look for an artist to bring on board, allowing him to focus his energies more in terms of crafting his story arc. 

Storytelling - 2

With the caveat that I'm evaluating the storytelling with only one issue complete, I can say that it's acceptable...but not great.  Honestly, that may be coming...especially if (as it appears) Nyquist's adopting the model of unrolling stories slowly over an arc, it could well be that the richness of his tale simply hasn't been revealed yet. 

Overall Rating: 3.0

Fiction Foundry 22

Aisha, Mike's physical therapist, was nonplussed:  "There's just no way.  This...this shouldn't even be possible.  After being unresponsive for months, your muscles should've atrophied to the point that you'd need years of therapy."

"So...you're upset I'm not messed up worse?" Mike replied teasingly.

"No...I just can't believe it...and I've got serious reservations about sending you home this soon, but your primary says you're good to go."

No sooner were the release papers signed than Mike asked if they could swing by the Potains' home so he could check on Mary and Desmond.

"Well, honey..." Jeanine hesitatingly replied, "You've been through a lot.  Wouldn't you rather go home and get settled in a little first?"

"I've been settling for four months, mom.  I'd really like to go check on Mary and Desmond."

"Mary is still healing up too, bud" his father joined in.  "You know they...they really don't need us to expose her to any more potential germs or viruses."

"That doesn't make any sense. 

Midnight-as-ethical-alchemist, Smash Comics #31 (February 1942)

The Midnight feature in Smash Comics #31 was, again, untitled.  It opens in the secret lair of Dave Clark (alias Midnight) and his companions, Doc Wackey and Gabby the talking monkey.

An explosion rocks the lair and Doc comes flying out of the lab, his momentum stopped only by Dave.

Wackey reports he's developed a machine capable of changing the atomic structure of material objects, essentially allowing him to transform one element into another!

Despite a couple of in-house demonstrations, the remaining two-thirds of Team Midnight express skepticism.  Wackey proposes they come along and witness some additional outdoor testing. 

Unfortunately, it turns out that the people of the countryside are not uniformly salt of the earth.  A couple of no-luck miners spy Wackey transforming an oak tree into pure aluminum, when one of them hits upon an alternative plan for the machine.

He begins yelling for help, and when the heroic trio rush into the ramshackle cabin he bludgeons Dave over the head, trusses him up, and suspends our bound hero over a mineshaft.

Meanwhile, the miners-turned-thugs crunch Wackey with a full-nelson until he agrees to use the machine to turn rocks into gold.

The would-be financial titans load the gold rocks into their pick-up and head into Big City to sell them.  The short-sighted criminals soon learn, however, that Wackey is not the obeisant coward they took him for--as they've hauled and transported not a pick-up load of gold, but near-worthless brass!  I must point out, here, that these cats must be the most-incompetent miners in history if--after having spent "all their lives" scraping out a living in the field--they still can't tell the difference between brass and gold.  It's probably time to consider another career path, boys...but not crime.  You aren't particularly skilled at that either.

Meanwhile, back at the cabin Gabby has freed Midnight and the Doc and the trio are waiting with baited breath for the return of their erstwhile captors.

Having switched his reversible suit to the "Midnight side" (in order to preserve his secret identity?), Dave burst out of the cabin door onto the unsuspecting Spade and Weasel, and proceeds with his signature ethical pedagogy.

While, Midnight is busy pummeling Spade, Weasel retreats to the pick-up and turns the element-transformation ray on his pursuers.  Midnight and Spade are caught in the blast and immediately transformed into brass statues.

Weasel means to subject Doc Wackey to a similar fate (I guess at this point, Weasel: (A) has given up all hope of using the ray to make gold, (B) is under the wildly-unjustified assumption that he'll be able to figure out how to use the machine on his own, or (C) more-than-likely has become so enraged he's thinking only about short-term revenge.) Yet again, however, the hero is rescued from certain doom by the timely interposition of that paladin primate, Gabby.

While Gabby has Weasel preoccupied, Wackey leaps to the machine and restores Midnight and Spade.  Midnight's pummeling of Spade picks right back up without missing a beat. This, alone, was fairly impressive to me.  Yet the superlatives of our "non-powered" hero don't stop merely with being able to quickly recover from the 1940s equivalent of being frozen in carbonite; he's apparently punching Spade  so fast  that the force of gravity doesn't have enough time to pull his near-unconscious body to the ground! 

I don't know, man...that's pretty dang fast.

The story comes to an abrupt ending with another example of the supposedly justice-conscious crusader handing out mulligans for kidnapping, theft, and attempted murder.

Ummmm...okay, kids.  I'm not entirely sure what the moral lesson is for today--If you steal stuff and then try to kill the hero who pursues you, be sure you at least sound sincere when you apologize?