Stephanie Williams, Ariel Medel, and Valentina Pinto bring back the 1990s cartoon Street Sharks for a new generation and medium in a power-packed launch issue. This comic is a love letter to cheesy catchphrases, wrestling holds, wanton destruction, and sibling love. It definitely mines some of the same things as the more, let’s just say, respected X-Men and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchises, but Street Sharks takes these ideas of kicking mutant criminal butt and helping a world that hates and fears you to 11. I think a lot of that is that walking, talking sharks are genuinely more terrifying than sexy humans (Or blue furries) and turtles.

Williams and Medel pace out Street Sharks #1 like an episode of a Saturday morning: a killer and no filler. There’s minimal backstory and talking sequences and plenty of Fission City-spanning mayhem. However, Ripster, Slammu, Streex, and Jab aren’t one-dimensional, and their fights against the villainous Seaviates brings out their personalities, interests, and relationships to the forefront. For example, Streex and Jab use an old trick they used to get out of their dad’s bear hug holds to get out of a tight situation. This establishes rapport and chemistry better than a long monologue about their origins.

As mentioned earlier, Street Sharks is mostly fighting, but it succeeds thanks to an onslaught of color from Pinto and creative layout choices from Ariel Medel beginning with a whirling dervish of a double page spread of the Street Sharks fighting the Seaviates before telling the comic’s story. Medel is great a simulating motion in this first salvo and understands the assignment with plenty of exaggerated character designs, expressions, and gestures. There’s more biting, punching, spearing, and creative uses of predatory fish abilities than a UFC fight in the Georgia Aquarium, and the variety in the enemies’ look and abilities keeps the battles fresh and not frozen. (Fish puns are so fun, guys!)

I love that Stephanie Williams and Ariel Medel show the Street Sharks straddling a line between traditional heroes and anti-heroes as they save a kid, but also obliterate Fission City in the process. They really need a Master Splinter for marine life in their lives, but science grad students Bends and Lena will do for now. In fact, these 2 brainiacs are the tenacious intellectualism to the over-the-top violence of the Sharks, and it’s cool to see a Black female scientist play such a pivotal role in the story without the plot making a big deal about it. Not every scientist has to be a nerdy white dude.

Street Sharks #1 is all about fun, action, and family and doesn’t get steeped in trying to deconstruct or be overly clever with the original property. The title evokes violent anthropomorphic marine animals wreaking havoc in an urban landscape, and Wiliams and Medel deliver this while having a relatable family dynamic and building to a bigger throwdown between the Sharks and Seaviates led by the eugenicist Dr. Paradigm. I never saw an episode of Street Sharks, but this is definitely how I expected an episode to play out from the clips and memes from the Internet. (Apparently, the show is available on the world’s greatest streaming service, Tubi.) This is my pure joy and entertainment, escape from the outside world comic, and I can’t wait to see more cool fighting moves and one-liners in upcoming issues.

Story: Stephanie Williams Art: Ariel Medel
Color: Valentina Pinto Letterer: Jeff Eckleberry
Story: 8.0 Art: 8.4 Overall: 8.2 Recommendation: Buy

IDW Publishing provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Purchase: Zeus Comics – Kindle