Written by: Bruno De Roover
Illustrations: Romano Molenaar
Coloring: Joël Séguin
Publisher: Standaard Uitgeverij
J.Rom: Force of Gold #1 Schaduw – Comic Book Review
After Suske and Wiske (or Bob et Bobette, Spike and Suzy, Willy and Wanda) received a ‘reboot’, it was also time to give Jerom his very own reboot. Jerom has always been known as the loveable strongman, who ended up being the muscular hero in the Suske and Wiske comics. After that, he even received his own spin-off series, which was loved by many. Today Jerom appears before us as J.Rom (or J) in his new and more mature series: J.Rom: Force of Gold. Luckily, we had the chance to take a look at the first album, Schaduw (Shadow).
The first portion of the story starts with J.Rom, a hero that has to handle a hostage situation in the city bank tower. Whilst getting people to safety, the last ‘hostage’ seems to be the actual perpetrator, who has a trigger of a bomb on him. Due to this mistake the bomb went off and many lives were lost in the process. Even though all the good deeds he had done, together with the ‘Force’ organization that supported him, saved so many lives, this disaster had left our hero scarred for life.
Force was disbanded and J was not allowed to be a hero anymore. J was only a husk of his former self as he drowned his misery with booze. During one of his raging hangovers, a girl Epifanie (Pi) turned up in J’s life in order to convince him that he was once again needed. J.Rom refused to listen to her attempts of persuasion and was about to kick her out when a mysterious explosion took place.
Pi was startled, but she still would not take no for an answer, after the party of two had to relocate to a local bar. After hitting a sensitive snare or two, J was finally convinced to follow Pi, in order to clear some things up about the suspicious explosion. From here on out, it seems like Pi would get what she wanted, namely get J.Rom to suit up once again.
Overall the flow of the story of this first issue is quite slow, as most characters are still getting introduced. The comic feels like a real buildup and by the end, you will notice that the series has set its foundation and thus is ready to crack some skulls in the second issue.
During the course of the first issue its clear that the writer, Bruno De Roover, is aiming to portray J’s mental state and the hardships he must have gone through after he failed to rescue a lot of innocent bystanders. The fairly grim artwork does a great job in supporting his downfall from hero to zero.
The artwork and the coloring have been done by Romano Molenaar and Joël Séguin respectively. You’ll immediately notice that this reboot does not look like the Amoras reboot and leans more towards a style that can be found in ‘American Comics’. That being said, it’s fun to see a traditional Belgian comic book character in a more known drawing style and best of all, it seems to work well for J.Rom. Even though at times he looks like an obese Wolverine, you’ll enjoy the artwork from start to finish. The fact that all panels are not always organized in a neat and tidy fashion also offers an appreciated mix up.
J.Rom himself has changed a lot, appearance wise and his depressing state of mind as well, compared to the always jolly strongman from the original series. He still isn’t able to speak properly and you will see a vague resemblance of what he used to look like. Overall a decent makeover, that suits the grim world J finds himself in.
Conclusion
J.Rom: Force of Gold #1 Schaduw will set a decent base for the series. You will be able to see J.Rom tackle new obstacles in a darker world and perhaps see him return to his old career of being a hero. During his downfall you will be treated to great artwork and enough mood setting colors in order to be drawn into the story. Even though there’s only a scarce amount of information, you just know the second issue will start off with a bang.
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[…] ended the review of the first issue of J.Rom: Force of Gold with the prediction the second volume would start off with a bang. Well, […]