ADVANCED REVIEW: ‘Unnatural: Blue Blood,’ Issue #1

Unnatural: Blue Blood #1 is published by Image Comics and written by Mirka Andolfo, with art by Mirka Andolfo and Ivan Bigarella, colors by Francesca Carotenuto and Francesca Vivaldi, letters by Fabio Amelia and Maurizio Clausi, and localization by Steve Orlando. Years have passed since Leslie changed the world. Now, having settled down, she tries to enjoy the quiet, running a small dinner with Khal and helping him raise his teenage sister Shea. But something is haunting her nights, and new troubles may not be far away.

As a fan of Andolfo’s recent Sweet Paprika comic, I jumped at the chance to check out Unnatural: Blue Blood #1. It didn’t occur to me that it was a follow-up of the previous Unnatural series until my editor sent me the file, and I saw the familiar face of Leslie. Recognizing the character only from covers at my local comic shop, I was instantly worried that I would be at a total loss about what might be happening in this story. However, while there are some references to previous events I assume its predecessor dealt with, this book has enough familiar themes and concepts that I was able to enjoy it without reading the prior run.

Unnatural: Blue Blood #1’s biggest focus is on establishing its main cast. At this, it succeeds splendidly. Opening with Shea, Andolfo quickly demonstrates the girl’s struggles adapting to her new home and life as she was previously living with a foster family. While much of Shea’s struggles are fairly standard for a teen in her position, the book delivers the obvious moments skillfully and with a fair amount of kick to them.

The other focus of Unnatural: Blue Blood #1 is, of course, Leslie. Despite things seemingly going well overall for her, she’s facing some struggles of her own. While Leslie’s side of the story remains a bit more cryptic, the brief, presumably prophetic, moments the story shares with the reader are enough to peak the curiosity.

Complementing Andolfo’s strong, character-driven writing is a visual presentation that does all it can to reinforce every yell, passionate embrace, and condescending smirk. With a relatively low panel count per page, the art gets to deliver every moment in large panels that easily convey every one of the scenes. Thanks to the gorgeous colors employed throughout the book, these large panels are further brought to life.

Wrapping up our look at this book is the lettering. The letters fulfill their primary job of delivering the story to the reader in a clear way excellently. And while they sometimes employ some extra style to impart the characters’ personalities, it left me wishing it had gone just a bit further.

When all is said and done, Unnatural: Blue Blood #1 delivers an intriguing setup that has me more than interested in where things will be going for Leslie and company. I might need to order the collection of the first series when I visit my LCS this week, so I can be ready to follow along when this hits the stands later this month.

Unnatural: Blue Blood #1 is available wherever comics are sold on May 25th.