A miraculous scientific breakthrough is marred by a mysterious accident at a remote Norwegian base. When research appears to start again at a facility on the Isle of Wight, just off the south coast of England, it doesn’t take long for protesters to show up and demand some answers as to what’s going on in the building. One of those protesters, Tom Welsh, is there with his partner and teenage daughter, all of whom passionately oppose the potentially dangerous goings-on happening right on their doorstep. When Tom is able to dig deeper into what’s happening, it’s not long before his life is forever changed.

Creator Bruno Catarino writes a deliberately paced superhero origin I’m Flamevolt #1, first building up the stakes and familial drama before dropping Tom, and us, into the deep end.

I’m always really impressed with how deftly Catarino is able to shift genres and styles in his stories, while always having a really strong grasp on interpersonal drama. The medieval politics of Family and Honour, and the arcade game-homaging action of Crimson Bay both do a great job of this, for example, despite being vastly different in subject matter and tone.

The same is true of Flamevolt #1, which builds its central characters brilliantly, and in a fairly grounded way, despite some slightly fantastical subject matter.

It helps that the art by Arturo Palacios (assisted by colouring by Gregory Ottaviani, and lettering by Rob Jones) gives the action and drama having a sense of realism too.

Given Catarino’s seemingly endless explorations into different genres, where will he be going next? Given that the crowdfunding campaign for his science fiction take on The Odyssey is currently underway, that question has already been answered, but I look forward to him continuing his take on superheroes with Flamevolt.

Many thanks to Bruno Catarino for giving me a copy of Flamevolt #1 for review purposes. Check out brunocatarino.com for more information on his comics, and pick up Flamevolt #1 (and more besides) by contributing to The Odyssey’s Kickstarter campaign.

Hi! I’m Jason, and I write for midlifegamergeek.com, every single day. If you’re interested in supporting original, regularly published, human created content (which has never been plagiarised or otherwise copied from the hard work of other writers), you can donate and help me to keep this site running.

Not only do I earn no income from my writing here (though I may earn small fees from affiliate links posted on my pages; as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases from these links), but it seems that my work has, at times, been stolen and re-used by lazy, morally bankrupt idiots.

There’s no pressure of course, but I’d be truly grateful for any support that you could offer – and it’s easy to do so at either of these links: Ko-Fi.com/geekmid or PayPal.

Any donations are truly appreciated – and I also appreciate you taking the time to read my articles. Remember: this whole article was by Jason Brown, and appeared on midlifegamergeek.com. Take that, Skynet!