The Big Shakedown #1
Writers: Jordan Blum, Tim Seeley
Artist: Scott Koblish
Cover Artist: Scott Koblish
Colorist: Hi-Fi
Letterer: Nate Piekos
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
The Big Shakedown #1 introduces a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles where a devastating earthquake has left the city in ruins and its remaining residents struggling to get by. Jordan Blum and Tim Seeley establish a compelling mystery through Ester Blanco, a down-on-her-luck private investigator whose latest case could offer a way out of the city she calls home. Scott Koblish's artwork captures the devastation of Los Angeles while giving this new series a striking visual identity. With a promising lead character and a mystery worth investigating, The Big Shakedown gets off to an intriguing start.
Lost, Found, and Falling Apart
An earthquake devastates Los Angeles, leaving much of its population homeless and more than a few people dead. The government wants nothing to do with rebuilding the city, treating it as a cesspool and the natural disaster as an opportunity to rid America of its sleaziest metropolis. Five years later, the Los Angeles we know is completely unrecognizable. The rubble remains, hope is in short supply, and residents are leaving in droves.
Ester Blanco would surely love to be one of those people. Down on her luck and with the economy in the toilet, nobody is looking to hire a washed-up private investigator like herself. A ticket out of the City of Angels is exactly what she's after. Or perhaps there's hope after all, in the form of a handsome stranger who breaks into her apartment and cooks her a nice pot of posole.
His name is David A., and he's interested in hiring Ester to find his missing daughter. The problem? Following a catastrophic earthquake in a city the size of Los Angeles, there are more than a handful of missing children scattered throughout the ruins.
Will Ester accept David's offer and find his daughter, or will she come up empty-handed?
Full-Court Press, Short-Circuit Temper
We should really talk about Ester. Not only is she the protagonist of The Big Shakedown, but she's also head and shoulders above everyone else in this issue. There aren't many side characters introduced beyond David, and you know what? I'm completely fine with that. We spend the issue getting to know Ester, including her past as a consultant on a cop TV show and her habit of watching old Lakers seasons to recreate the feeling of watching games in real time.
I get it, Ester. As much as David makes fun of her for choosing a season in which the Lakers missed the playoffs, it takes a real fan to dig through the archives and watch a season when your team sucks.
Ester is a flawed protagonist right out of the gate, but not necessarily in a bad way. I think I'd be just as irritable and quick to snap if I had to navigate a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles. Hell, I can hardly imagine dealing with the regular Los Angeles as it is. You get the sense that Tim Seeley and Jordan Blum are trying to write Ester as an everywoman, someone whose frustrations and shortcomings feel relatable despite her extraordinary circumstances. For the most part, I think they pull it off.
In One Ear, Out the Panel
However, I do have one major caveat with the writing that I hope they address in future issues.
There's quite a bit of overexplaining through Ester's internal monologue, and it admittedly bogs down some of the reading experience. A thought bubble or two is fine, but when six or seven cram into a single page, it becomes excessive. With the artwork Scott Koblish provides, I feel the panels could often speak for themselves, allowing the action to unfold without constant narration. Instead, even the action sequences are littered with Ester's thoughts, disrupting the flow of the fights and robbing them of some much-needed momentum.
That might seem like a nitpick, but I genuinely feel this holds the issue back from delivering a much sharper punch. There's an enjoyable story here, and I wish the writing had a little more faith in the artwork and the reader to put the pieces together.
Art Imitates Disaster
Speaking of Scott Koblish, he does some very good work in this issue. You don't have to flip through many pages to realize Los Angeles is in ruins. We see Ester driving along dirt roads and living in a neighborhood that was probably sketchy to begin with, only to look even worse after the earthquake tore the streets apart. Under the bright lights and blazing sun of L.A., it all makes for a beautiful disaster. If that was Koblish's goal from the get-go, he knocked it out of the now-decrepit Dodger Stadium.
There's not a whole lot of action in this issue, but what we do get is well executed. Ester hopping from rooftop to rooftop and crashing through windows makes for some energetic sequences that showcase Koblish's ability to convey movement and destruction. If this is just a taste of what's to come, I'm looking forward to seeing what else he has in store as the series ramps up the action.
Worth the Fallout
Despite its tendency to overexplain itself, The Big Shakedown #1 is an enjoyable read anchored by a lead character I found surprisingly easy to relate to. Maybe it's her potty mouth, her affinity for watching old sports games, or her short fuse when dealing with life in a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles. Whatever the case, Ester Blanco is a character I gravitated toward almost immediately. With new comic book properties hitting shelves every week, creating a protagonist who sticks with you from the first issue isn't as easy as it might seem.