Kalayaan #1-4 Comics Review

Well, of course, I wasn’t totally blown away by Kalayaan #1. That one was a quick read for me but despite that, I really liked Blood Fang as an enemy. The idea that he grew bigger and bigger but increased in spped and strength at the same time was something I liked so much. Big guys that move fast sounds like a good idea to me.

Kalayaan #2, on the other hand, gives away a few glimpses in Kalayaan’s past. Gio really did well in building up the suspense for the last pages. The way the villains got hold of our hero was relaly quite interesting.

Among the 4 issues, Kalayaan #3 was the most action-packed. This was the issue where Kalayaan actually dealt with the actual villains that tried to kill him on the previous issue. And by the way, the concept of a high tech hut on pages 3 to 5 was really a cool one. I thought that was pretty awesome. On page 8, just before the actual fight, Kalayaan crushes the GPS in his hands in front of his enemies. Now thats some attitude you got there, Kalayaan! Keep it up, I like that too!

Now, for Kalayaan #4, Gio warned readers in the previous issue that this particular issue would be, in his own words, a “shocker.” When he said that one, he really wasn’t kidding at all. If #3 was all about action, this one balances things because it is filled with lots of emotions and drama - done in a very, very good way. I don’t want to spoil some important points of the story but I’d like to share that the moment I saw the image of a flying superhero with tears on his eyes, I knew that that was gonna stay with me for a long time. For me, that means that no matter how “powerful” and “superhuman” heroes are, they are still “humans” and are still intact with their emotions and feelings. If you have faced frustrations in life, you’d have no problem relating to that.

Despite Gio’s warning, I really would have to admit that I wasn’t prepared for the last page. I went something like “WHAT???” for that one. I guess I can say that this last page haunted me . There’s just so much emotion in that that I pondered about the scene for several days.

Over all, I’d commend Gio Paredes for his efforts on Kalayaan comics #1-4. Here’s a comicbook writer and artist who certainly isn’t the best in the world but who does it all out of sheer love - love for comics, as a medium and love for his characters. Furthermore, its really a joy to witness how he improves his craft with every issue he releases. He makes sure that each one is better than the previous ones he has come up with. He really managed to give us more than “just another superhero story”.

Check out his website http://www.geocities.com/kalayaancomics/index.htm and see for yourself.

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