Standstill #4 Review

 

Writer & Colorist: Lee Loughridge

Artists: Andrew Robinson & Alex Riegel

Designer & Letterer: Rob Tweedie

Cover Artists: Andrew Robinson & Alex Riegel

Publisher: Image Comics

Price: $4.99

Release Date: November 20, 2024

 

Colin's wife Lara left him. His friend Kate is helping him build a time machine in his garage. Colin Shaw may be more Angus MacGyver than Dr Emmett Brown, but someone stole his Standstill device, and he wants to get it back. Can Colin catch the thief before he kills again? Let’s hop on our skateboards, hitch a ride on Standstill #4, and find out!

 

Story

Lara claimed Colin was obsessive. Kate calls him a narcissist. But while Lara leaves their small town for the big city, Kate stands by him even after losing her job. Sneaking into work and stealing chemicals from a government project could get her arrested. But they've been friends since their university days when they bonded over a mutual interest in time travel. If someone stole the device they worked on, she wants to help Colin catch the thief.

 

But in Lee Loughridge's story, it's not as simple as that. Once they build the device, Colin must wear it. To be specific, Colin must integrate it into his body. Due to their plan's secret, experimental, and illegal nature, that's not something they can do under sterile conditions in a hospital surgical suite. Colin needs to go full Deer Hunter in Standstill #4. Their garage-built device may not work. As she admitted, this is like transforming an Atari into a teleportation machine. Still, the operation is a game of Russian Roulette, and Kate must squeeze the trigger.

 

Ryker Ruel has been on a rampage. His travels have taken him across the globe. Now, he's in New York and has another target in his sights. He hates pretense and attacks people who profit from the misery of others. Perhaps some of the people and corporations he has hurt didn't deserve it. Some of his actions may be more about shaming than anything else. His Robin Hood exploits may hurt the people he wants to help. But Ryker has a plan, and as in Pakistan and the Murder City Devils' bar, he intends to kill.

 

Standstill #4 is a race against time. If Colin survives the implantation, and he can get the device to work the way he wants, perhaps he can track Ryker and prevent him from killing again. Colin only knows he must try because all of this is his fault.

 

Art

Andrew Robinson portrays Colin Shaw as a low-key surfer reclining in his chair and addressing his professor. His fellow students dot the first few rows of the lecture hall while a man in a suit observes from farther back. Afterward, as Colin and Kate traverse a portico, the businessman with a silver-tinged goatee hands them his card. Traveling Back To The Future, we will see him in General White's office in Standstill #1.

 

Despite working for Francis Goldsmith for years and receiving a hefty severance check, Colin parks his Volkswagon hatchback in his driveway. He sets up two folding tables and works with hand tools, a laptop, and test tubes to create another time travel device. Unlike Ryker's suave assurance, Colin's fears are evident, as are Kate's, as she rests her hand on some schematics. Still, at least Kate has her Porsche. Alex Riegel takes over the penciling chores halfway through Standstill #4. Reigel maintains Robinson's across-the-pages layout style, but his panels are less cinematic and more personal. Riegel's art taps into the whimsical nature of this time-travel story while making Colin even more expressive.

 

Lee Loughridge paints a Cal Tech lecture hall in browns, grays, tans, and beige. Once they step outside, the greenery of Pasadena surrounds Colin and Kate. As they work late into the night in Colin’s purple garage, fluorescent lights transform Kate’s Cal Tech Rugby sweatshirt from turquoise to Granny Smith Green. Loughridge overlays a circular mesh to simulate the overhead glare. A hypodermic needle glows yellow like a magic wand, while orange and yellow surround white as Kate pulls the trigger on a jet injector.  

 

Rob Tweedie dishes out uppercase black letters in white dialogue balloons and colored narrative boxes. The letters grow bold for intonation, swell for raised voices, and rarely shrink. White block letters stand still as location markers while yellow laughter spills across the empty seats of an auditorium. Pink letters trail behind an Aston Martin racing toward an American flag on the George Washington Bridge, while orange letters accentuate the stopping power of Kate’s Porche. Thanks to Image Comics for providing a copy for review.   

 

Final Thoughts

Ryker Ruel is hurting. To assuage his pain, he targets the people responsible. Standstill #4 reveals Ryker’s link to Colin and Kate and why he became a rebel with a cause. The only question is: Can the two Cal Tech alums stop him before Ryker, their former employer, or the government come after them?

 

Rating 9.4/10

 

For another cover see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.

 

To refresh your memory of earlier events, see my review of Standstill #1 and Standstill #2.

Standstill #2 Review

 

Writer & Colorist: Lee Loughridge

Artist: Andrew Robinson

Designer & Letterer: Rob Tweedie

Cover Artists: Andrew Robinson & Dave Johnson

Publisher: Image Comics

Price: $4.99

Release Date: September 25, 2024

 

A nameless man is using an invention that can stop time to embarrass royal families, kill a murderous motorcycle gang, punish sexual offenders, and damage Burger King restaurants. He travels across the globe to visit a motorcycle club in Pakistan. What business might he conduct with these men who kill their political rivals? And why is he so fixated on motorcycle gangs? Let’s hop on our Hondas, ride into Standstill #2, and find out!

 

Story

The man strides into the bar filled with Pakistani men. While one man wears a suit, most wear traditional Pakistani clothing and head coverings. This evening, the man wears a white suit and a wide-brim hat. As in the Murder City Devils' club, he orders cocktails the establishment is unlikely to provide. Then, the man introduces himself. His name is Ryker Ruel, and this is not a social call.

 

Colin’s monitors glow in his dark basement office. As he struggles to piece together the clues, a former coworker calls. She tells him the director of Project Standstill was found dead in the lab. Her news confirms his fears. Someone has stolen the device they worked on and is using it to accomplish these impossible crimes. Colin wants Kate's help to build another unit and use it to track whoever stole the original.

 

General White sent troops to raid the laboratory and secure the Standstill device. But someone got there first. Perhaps Ryker stole it. Or maybe it was the tough-talking civilian in White's office. In Standstill #2, Lee Loughridge leaves readers much to ponder. He delivers another fast-paced thrill ride as Ryder throws bundles of cash on the table, then dares the men to kill him like they assassinate politicians.

 

Colin believes that the Standstill thief is a psychopath. But Ryker carries out spontaneous acts to protect others while fulfilling the orders of his superiors. Yet, with great power comes a price tag. Despite his ever-present grin, Ryker's actions suggest the cost he is paying for defying the laws of man and physics in Standstill #2.

 

Art

Colin's face looks worn and haggard. His anxiety grows as he rises and presses a hand to his head. In bed, Kate's playful expression suggests she likes having an excuse to call Colin. But all playfulness drains from her face when Colin admits the Standstill device worked. The Pakistani men regard Ryker through narrowed eyes, while Ryker's grin suggests he fell into a vat of chemical waste. Like his BMW, Ryker’s white double-breasted suit and wide-brim hat evoke an earlier era. Colin’s boxy Golf GTI also hails from an earlier decade. Yet Ryker’s stylish BMW rapidly collects bullet holes. The backgrounds fade away as the bike riders pull alongside Ryker. But when blood flies, it’s not Colin who loses his head in Standstill #2.

 

Lee Loughridge paints Colin's dark office in bleached blues while Kate relaxes in her bright yellow bedroom. Her tanned skin suggests that, like Lara, she gets outside far more than Colin. He continues their conversation amid the shadows beneath his covered porch. Then he pulls his dark car out of the dark garage. Colin motors down the road, a shadow inside his dark car while the windows reveal a featureless light green. Red, orange, and yellow dominate Andrew Robinson’s panoramic scenes of Ryker's meeting in Pakistan. The same colors surround him on his breathless flight through the city. Touches of blue and purple show shading and ground the vivid colors in the darkness, while orange and white dominate the final double-page spread.

 

Rob Tweedie dishes out uppercase black letters in white dialogue balloons and colored narrative boxes. The letters grow bold for intonation and swell for raised voices. Sound effects fill the restaurant as gunfire erupts across four pages. Engines rev, tires squeal, and bullets bite into glass and steel in the road chase that roars through the final third of Standstill #2. Thanks to Image Comics for providing a copy for review.   

 

Final Thoughts

Ryker's mission takes him to Pakistan in Standstill #2, while Colin races to prevent Ryker from blowing up the world in this fast-paced, popcorn movie thrill ride.

 

Rating 9/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.

Standstill #1 Review

 

Writer: Lee Loughridge

Artist: Andrew Robinson

Colorist: Lee Loughridge

Designer & Letterer: Rob Tweedie

Cover Artists: Andrew Robinson, Cary Nord & Matteo Scalera

Publisher: Image Comics

Price: $4.99

Release Date: August 21, 2024

 

A man dressed in a Hawaiian shirt orders cocktails in a biker bar. He insults the club members' attire. They drag him off his barstool and slam him into the wall. Will he become the Murder City Devils' latest victim? Or can he turn the tables on the angry bikers? Let's leap onto our Harleys, ride into Standstill #1, and find out!

 

Story

We don't learn the man's name. But the grin on his face bespeaks his confidence. He takes his time, upping the ante, with one comment after another steadily increasing their ire. The bartender announces the man finally lit the fuse when the bikers drag him into the corner. He presses a shotgun into the man's face. Suddenly, the man isn't in their hands. He leans against the bar again. He admires a long knife. He wonders if it is what the bikers used to kill a woman.

 

Colin Shaw's wife is leaving him. Lara is tired of living in this small town. She hopes leaving will prompt Colin to stop obsessing about past failures and spinning conspiracy theories. But instead of channeling his energies into a new project, Colin returns to the basement after she roars off in her red convertible. He works late into the night, studying news from around the globe. Someone has gotten past elaborate security to attack corporations, rob banks, behead drug lords, and disgrace or kill monarchs. Colin didn't perform these acts. Yet he believes his invention enabled them to carry out these seemingly impossible tasks.

 

In Standstill #1, Lee Loughridge begins an epic tale about a device that can stop time and a man who uses it to right wrongs. The government realizes someone stole the device, and they have no way to track it. Colin Shaw is their only hope. Can he build another and help them prevent the thief from destabilizing the international community?

 

Art

The nameless man swaggers through the bar in a Hawaiian shirt and shorts. He smokes a cigarette using a long holder. The men around him wear leather, denim, and scarves over their heads. Tattoos adorn their skin. He smiles while they frown. Even when they drag him away, he never loses his grin. Corky, the burly bartender, gathers with the others before the bar when the man does his strange disappearing and reappearing act. Then his eyes bulge, and his jaw drops as he clutches a bloody knife with tattooed fingers spelling a four-letter word.

 

The nameless man's green and yellow shirt shines bright amid the subdued tones of the darkened bar. The green is reflected in the backlit bottles along the wall, while the cigarette flame and the downlight over the pool table echo the yellow in the man's shirt. Lee Loughridge contrasts these bright colors with orange and purple, while color washes and black dots increase the atmosphere in this den of iniquity.

 

Andrew Robinson utilizes horizontal layouts across two pages in Standstill #1. Panels often stretch across the pages, and arrangement ignores staple boundaries. The big screen treatment unfolds quickly, from the sun-dappled greenery outside Colin Shaw's traditional American house to a late-night diner painted in subdued yellows, browns, and greens, Colin's basement office illuminated by two widescreen monitors, and a red and white plane flying over puffy white clouds in the bright blue sky. The nameless man rides in First Class. Yet now his attire is subdued, and the man beside him usurps his King Of Cool image. But the blue glow of the nameless man's wrist bracelet reminds us who is in charge.

 

Rob Tweedie slips uppercase black letters into white dialogue balloons. The letters grow bold for intonation and swell for raised voices. Sound effects elevate the taut opening scene, as the bikers slam the man into a wall and pound their fists into bricks when he vanishes. Thanks to Image Comics for providing a copy for review.   

 

Final Thoughts

If you could put the world on pause, you could go anywhere and perform any action without anyone being the wiser. As the inventor of such a device tracks the man who stole it, Standstill #1 ponders how quickly this godlike ability would corrupt whoever uses it.

 

Rating 9.6/10

 

For more covers see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.