Finger Guns #1 Advanced Review

Written by Justin Richards 
Art by Val Halvorson 
Colors by Rebecca Nalty 
Letters by Taylor Esposito

Finger Guns written by Justin Richards and illustrated by Val Halvorson is the first new series of 2020 published by Vault comics. Now if you followed me at all last year you know just how much I love this publisher. Throughout 2019, Vault was a continuous powerhouse with titles like These Savage Shores, Heist, Money Shot and Sera and the Royal Stars. Vault is fully prepared to start 2020 with a literal bang. Thanks to the kind folks over at Vault Comics I was able to get a sneak peek at the first issue of Finger Guns a month before it hits your local comic shop.

Life as a teenager is hard. With factors like school, work, friendships, and puberty it can feel almost impossible to balance. Life as a teenager with a crappy and stressful home life, well that's even harder. Enter our two protagonists. Finger Guns follows the story of two such kids following their own beaten path just trying to make it through life before converging together with what they have in common It's a coming of age story we've seen before, but with an added twist. Our two main characters can manipulate the emotions of one another with you guessed it, a single finger gun motion.

This book is absolutely gorgeous, Val Halvorson and Rebecca Nalty (the series colorist) are an absolute dream team together. In a book about elevated emotions, the theme is handled perfectly in regards to its art. The colors are gorgeous and vibrant while still tying down the fact that this book is just about everyday kids. There's also a use of texture along with the colorwork that I really appreciate, it really helps to add depth to every panel and page.

While there are a lot of similarities between our characters I also really love the contrast between them. Wes, who we're first introduced harnesses a power that seemingly elevates the emotions of others, especially those of hate and anger, while his counterpart Sadie seemingly calms and settles with the use of her own powers. This contrast can also be seen in their personal lives as well. Wes lives most of his life alone, as his absent father spends most of his time working late, while Sadie's family is quite the opposite as we learn here parents are financially struggling which only adds weight to their family. Both are feelings that almost everyone has experienced at one point or another which helps to make the series more relatable despite its magical touch.

My biggest issue with Finger Guns premiere is its pacing. Now I'll give him credit, Richards gets right down to it with our main character discovering and experimenting with his powers by page four. I like this a lot. However, from there, the rest of the issue seems rushed with scenes feeling incomplete at times. The final pages, in particular, are where we see it the worst especially in the issue's cliffhanger. I'm almost certain of where the next issue will go and how it will begin which makes its ending lacking in any weight or real "threat".  I personally feel like the final pages should have just shown the eluded action with the opening of issue two dealing with its consequences.

Overall I really enjoyed Finger Guns and am excited to see where the story will go. If you're a fan of series like We Can Never Go Home or 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank this is a seemingly no brainer pickup. Either way, make sure to pick up Finger Guns #1 and read it for yourself when the first issue drops on February 26th.