3 out of 5

The tone is a bit iffy – combining school shootings with action movie-like banter and hijinx – and it’s hard to figure how this concept extends – since our lead, super-secret-assassin duo can literally dispatch rooms of enemies with a finger, with apparently no super-secret hesitation toward doing so in public – but this solo effort from writer / artist Muhammad Rasheed is definitely intriguing, and intriguing enough to encourage ripping through its 50+ pages.

What I appreciated about the book – from that odd tone to its artistic limitations – is that it’s consistent.  Rasheed doesn’t overreach with any statement on youth violence, or, oppositely, try to get too whipsmart with his buddy cop humor.  And the comment about the art isn’t meant to be a snipe, necessarily: panels are pretty standard, with two to three characters chatting over a single-item background, and the action is boiled down to minimal movements that get the point across, but Rasheed – either doing so intuitively or purposefully – seems to be aware of his abilities, and structures the story to match.  So it all works.  We’re not held up by confusing choreography that’s beyond the artist’s call, or jam-packed with text that would clog up the standard-layout pages.  By removing potential roadblocks, Sinanju becomes immensely readable.

I still don’t know where this goes from here, but I do know I didn’t hesitate to buy the second issue to find out.