By Zack Quaintance — One of the first things that readers are likely to notice about Young Shadow — the new entry in the YA-skewing Double+ Adventure series by cartoonist Ben Sears — is the color palette. The book is set entirely at night (I believe, maybe minus a scene or two taking place at sunrise or sunset), following a young masked vigilante’s work in a futuristic city. Rather than go with more traditional dark and brooding shades of black or blue, Sears makes the choice to give his story a streetlight yellow.

It’s a great stylistic choice, excellently complimenting the intricate, imaginative, and original look with which Sears illustrates the buildings, backgrounds, technologies, and other trappings of its world. But in my reading of Young Shadow, it is also a choice that speaks to some of the core thematic interests of this book. See, Young Shadow is in a very clear sense all about the challenges of the day, about corrupt business interests wielding vast and uncaring amounts of power, police officers acting as self-interested street gangs, and the quality of life for citizens withering as a result.

These are, perhaps, not the clear problems depicted in vigilante stories of the past. They aren’t the shades of bright white versus dark shadows. No, this is something more insidious. It’s a set of problems sold as bright that actively poison the world around us. Instead of delivering us the light for our lives they promise, they turn everything a dull and aching shade of yellow, harming us in ways that are much harder to pinpoint, articulate, and rally against. At least, that’s how I read the color choice here.

Colors aside, Young Shadow is a teen vigilante very much born of this specific moment. Our hero lives an unimpeachably good life, delivering to food banks, taking in rescue dogs with constant discussion of how to do so ethically, and living in a sparse and frugal way that does not (directly) beget exploitation of others around him.

He’s not a billionaire playing out personal pain, and he’s not a corporate science genius nobly defending the lesser folk around him. And, to be sure, it’s a familiar sensibility found in Sears other Double+ Adventures work, and it’s absolutely effective when applied to shadowy vigilante crimefighting tropes.

What I enjoyed most about this book, though, was just the sheer excellence of Sears cartooning, the way the city looked. The story is really well-paced and as fast-moving as an action story should be, but the stepbacks that Sears often takes to give us wider shots of everything from our main character hopping through the city to the inside of his humble living area to a panel in which the enemies loom over our hero. It’s just stellar cartooning throughout.

What it all adds up to — the interesting visual choices with the poignant social consciousness applied to old tropes — is a book that feels like the next evolution for YA comics in the superhero genre. It’s great work, both for those interested in comics craft and for the young readers they may pass the book on to.

GRAPHIC NOVEL REVIEW: Young Shadow by Ben Sears

Young Shadow
Writer/Artist: Ben Sears
Publisher: Fantagraphics
Young Shadow usually protects sci-fi Bolt city by making deliveries for the food bank and rescuing pets. But one night, he discovers the Sludge Team, a conspiracy composed of a CEO of a chemical plant, trust-fund punks, and suspicious cops. To stop their evil plan, Young Shadow must don a couple of batons, knee pads, and a small black mask, and team up with Spiral Scratch — another benevolent protector in the fight — and metal-clad nuns. Drawn in bold yellows and blacks, this is a socially conscious YA action/adventure kid superhero tale.
Release Date: April 20, 2021
Price: $16.99
Buy It Here: Young Shadow by Ben Sears

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.