YAIRA #1 - REVIEW - A Superhero Universe Without Heroes 

Remember Kingdom Come and how it criticized the tropes of anti-heroes/heroes fighting each other and becoming indistinguishable from the villains? The Rippaverse apparently never got the memo. They're speedrunning another comic universe's dystopian future. Also, it's funny how Isom landing on the car is like the cosmic nexus point of this whole universe. Ever story spins out from that moment.

Perfect thing to listen to while I work in this ungodly factory heat

I think the thing that pisses me off the most about all this whole thing is how Eric put Debra Carita in a position she should never have been placed in. I cannot image how humiliated she must feel to do so much work only for large parts of it to be completely redrawn because of Eric's lack of knowledge of art composition. She was not ready to be placed onto a project of this scale, and has subsequently had her art critiqued to a degree she should never have had to endure. I can only hope she learns from the experience and becomes a better artists because of it. She does not deserve to have been treated that way by Eric. It's shameful.

Finally an actual review. Here's what I understood about Yaira and her arc: She followed "him" in leaving her authoritarian planet and wants to find "him"; She lands on Earth and falls in love with the first human she meets; none of her children have her powers, she decides to leave so she won't watch them die; generations later, when her genes are deluded, for some reason a mexican girl who is her descendant unlocks her powers and unleashes a SKY BEAM; the three people from Yaira's world just so happened to be flying next to Earth at that exact moment to see it so the rest of the story can happen.

Eric seems to have a lot of set pieces or scenes that he thinks are cool, but no idea how to tell a story around those ideas.

FUKKEN BRUTAL!! Good GOD , I am glad I stopped with Alpha Core. Thanks for the review brother. July promised a lot and he delivered a lot. Just not what I was looking for.

The 'falling on a car' thing is "ICONIC"... Remember? Eric said.

That glasses thing? Here’s I would have wrote it: • Yaira is desperate not be seen. • A guard notices her. • She searches the labs to find a lab coat. • Either the coat happens to have a pair glasses in the pocket, or she finds a pair on a desk as the guard shines the light on her. Guard: Freeze! (yes that is a perfect time to use a pun) Yair turns at the guard’s request. Guard: Oh! I didn’t recognize you a second ago. (Poking fun at the whole glasses/Superman trope) Yaira: No problem, Chilled. You work that flashlight like a chomp. (Lol.)

Brian Salami !

Fun fact: leading up to this comic release, the Soskas were talking about Yaira being an anti-hero. She doesn't do a single good thing in the book tho, which just makes her a villain. Even killing the 3 people after her wasn't good because they wouldn't be there if SHE wasn't on Earth. Just her presence is disastrous.

Nice review. Guide books and outside editors are really important for comics. Glad I learned that before publishing any new stuff

“Like fucking Carmen Sandiego” lolololol

Sounds like a fair review to me. One minor correction, because its worse than you think. The Live Action Yaira wasn't an actress. Shes a College Basketball player from Calgary, Alberta. She's hot, but to teach her that accent (in less than a day) is kinda shitty.

Von, you misunderstand. That IS their planet. It looks like shit because the world of the Rippaverse IS shit.

7:30 I was writing comic scripts in high school, and even I wasn’t making the noob mistake the Soskas were making. And unlike the Soska’s, I actually wanted to LEARN. I had a copy of Wizard Magazine that I carried with me everywhere I went because it had a sample comic script and guidelines on writing your own comic. I absolutely loved it.

you have the best laugh !

Thanks for reading so we all don't have to, Von.

I haven't read Yaira, but I did buy Black Widow: No Restraints Play after learning they were hired for Rippaverse - I was interested in why Eric says he's such a fan of their work. And I've got to say... it's a very ok book. Nothing groundbreaking, but very competent. Some pages have many many panels, but there are enough pages that give a breathing room for the art and big moments. And yes. Black Widow is pissed at human traffickers through the whole book and goes to town on them. I kinda see why Eric got Soska's to write Yaira - they do know their pissed super-heroines. Maybe not much more (I honestly don't know), but still.

lol this review is spot on! Keep it up, V!

I’m all in on Von’s Haunted Castle!!!

There’s multiple places I noticed where if the multiple insert panels could have been a single better image. That one of the oil rig exploding seems like the extra panels at the top of the page could have been cut entirely and done the job fine

Von, I've figured it out. The reason Yaira was such an unenjoyable slog, and why it took me nearly 3 weeks to finish reading, is because this was an AI generated script. I'm almost willing to put money on it. The pedestrian, repetitive, and filler dialogue was mind numbing! Great review though. It was far more exciting than reading the book. I'd forgive the bland and problematic art and layouts if only the script was good (and not the result of a chatgpt prompt). And I'm STILL trying to find the element of Ice on the periodic table. Cheers!

Does Eric have editors?

Dude someone could offer me 100 bucks and give me the book and I still would not read that dog sh!t HA

I mean…to be fair, one of the greatest comic writers who’s ever lived (Alan Moore) consistently used the 9 panel grid. Watchmen is fairly consistently 6-9 panels per page. Several other acclaimed writers and their best projects routinely use the 9 panel grid (Bendis did it on Ultimate Spiderman, and he also has a ton of panels in Powers). Frank Miller would sometimes get 12 panels on the page. Really what I think is just awful about these pages is their structure. The paneling itself is just so weird and messy, and just generally unpleasant to look at. Tom King will use 9 panel grids a ton, but the pages are always pleasing and they serve a purpose. This just feels like, as you said, amateurish. And, to your point, even Moore and Bendis took advantage of splash pages because between splash pages and 9-12 panel grids are how pacing happens. Just wanted to put that out there as you were coming down really hard on pages having 9 panels, etc. haha 9 panel grids are awesome. 😊

I'm happy for Eric July that he has found success with his comic company and I hope it grows into something great. Right now though it's a mess. I bought Isom 1 and 2 and Alpha Core and was disappointed with all 3 books. I was going to get Yaira but I just couldn't do it and I'm glad I didn't now.

That’s the best way to describe these books. They’re EXHAUSTING! I couldn’t continue supporting Rippaverse after ISOM 2 honestly. A comic is supposed to feel exciting to read and these books just have me feeling mentally fatigued to a point where I can’t wait for it to end. As if reading their books is a chore. And you have people still saying “it’s just the beginning, it will get better in time!” But I’m sorry, I don’t believe it is unless something drastically changes. You either got it or you don’t. 4 books deep and we still don’t know wtf is going on or if these characters (who all have shitty personalities) are even inspirational heroes or not. Not saying Eric should give up, but he definitely needs to be honest and less arrogant and LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE so he can come out with better content. However, it’s good to see he’s inspired more indie creators like myself to step up and put our work out there. The people are hungry for something new and GOOD!

Good review!

Another thing about the husband is that she wasn't really bothered by her own husband's death. It should have only happened within hours. How is she not grieving or taking the day off?

Documman did the summary on the back of the book!

I laughed a lot. Thank you.

But does it feature an entire page of Shoulder Hair???

I remember when Eric July first announced the superioros none of them looked interesting at all and at first I thought that was as my own personal bias, But throughout the entirety of this whole universe is run and seeing the reviews made by Actual critical people I can see that I was not. Like personally do I do not agree with any of your political viewpoints or opinions but you seem to make some really cool comic books and make great points in these reviews. All I'll say is the person who deserves way more love then Eric and the indie comic scene and my opinion is My boy marcel dupree

I question the Rippaverse “ethic” and why they only have one. As was pointed out, it should be ethics. But I guess they only have the one ethic, which they’ve clearly failed at. To top it off, they should have called it the Rippaverse “ethos” but they’re just not as smart as they think.

I'll admit their writing is better than Eric's... He uses 1,000 words for things he could say in 50. Still it takes Two of them to write anything.

And here I was thinking my comic wasn't doing enough panels per page LOL Now I feel better.

Minute 2: 43 "clearly not from around here but..." -- What does this back cover blurb mean by "here?" Florespark, Texas? The Earth? Minute 2: 48 "Yaira is here searching..." -- Here in Texas? Here on Earth? Is it a big deal that Yaira is here in Texas or is it really important that Yaira is here on Earth?

My man V out here spitting facts.

There are too many hibbity jibbity squirrel words in this. I feel as if EJ injected too much of his nonsense into the script.

Great review! Getting me excited to do mine haha😂

this is the thing I'm glad for Eric and all his success, but I'm also the type of person that's like, dude listen to the critical reviews, not the reviews that praise it because they have same political leaning as him, or same ideology. that's why I like your review, you are looking at it as a consumer who has critical issues with the book and wants to address them.

I remember back before the first Isom campaign even launched, Eric was bragging about how his 86 page comics weren't going to be chock full of ads and were going to be made of high quality materials and effectively 3 or 4 regular comic books in length-all reasons given as to why we should be ok with spending more on his comic book than we would for a shorter comic we might get for $5 or so. To hear his fans pretend like 96 pages isn't enough time to setup any of these characters or have any sort of story and that it's only the first issue is quite confusing considering it's actually issues 1, 2, and 3 or even 4 all in one big bundled graphic novel. 96 pages is enough pages to be it's own trilogy story in traditional comics. I think of the Shadow of the Bat 4 part intro to that series of Batman comics starting in 1992. It introduced Victor Zsasz to Batman's list of villains he fights in Gotham. Definitely not the most interesting and memorable character of all the villains he fights, but certainly those first few issues do a superior job of setting up a much better character than everything we've gotten out of the Rippaverse so far.

Dang, I have been sleeping on your reviews. I wasn't aware this was a thing you are doing. Great review, honest. I tried to read Isom #1 but couldn't get 7 pages in each time I tried. All those damn panels... I need you to review my book after I get it put together. This is so refreshing to hear, and not constant ass kissing.

To be fair there are some characters with the mental illness haircut there are cool characters like Vi and Gwen Stacey from the spider verse movies. I'm pretty sure you know what the guy was going to say especially since he's in prison. That being said really good review dude

Great review. Von explained the problems and what should have been done.

Rippaverse should just change their logo to Isom falling onto a car already

Many thanks for this review.

I honestly think that Eric July was legally required to no longer use the name Isom. So he’s relying on his other Rippaverse characters to carry the universe. Why else would Isom #3 (the Rippaverse’s main headliner character) be taking so long to come out from the company? Why else are all the other second rate Rippaverse characters getting a book out before Isom#3. Eric has to rename the Isom character I bet. Time will tell. Von, is the name Isom mentioned anywhere in Yaira #1?

Von, no the Rippaverse people do *not* know what words mean. Nor the basics of story structure, narrative, or art.

I could’ve used that magic fucking Q-Tip a couple of times I got hurt.

You can see why Eric said creating books is easy, cause it's easy to create crap.

I will take the position that these small panels were done because it must be believed that it tells a better story. However it does not - less is more.

Cover looks gorgeous.

I call it The Side Shave xD Avoid at all costs!

💯💯💯💯

If you look closely, Yaira is a feminist power fantasy character. The villains are there to admonish her for being a "rebel". It's like as if the Soskas used this book as a therapy session. You can't expect a feminist to hide their agenda or their tendencies eveb if you tell them to "leave their politics at the door". The Soskas found a way to sneak their agenda in.

Von got the cover that looks like they used Brad Pitt from Troy as a reference for Yaira's face. SAD!

You didn't like it then 😂. Hope you had a cold beer after recording.

Im here for it & God is watching 😂

Im so gade I didn't get this. I would not been able to get through it. By the way I look forward to TERROR IN THE TRENCHES VOL 2.

Editor... they need an editor like crazy. Glad I didn't buy it.

There is Torture than beyond that their is the RIPPAVERSE hahaha 🤣

If you saw American Mary, this is how the Soskas write. Just be glad they didn't put some of the stuff they put in that movie.

Please tell me that you didn't spend any money on this.

Uh huh. So, it's a mental illness haircut when the chick has a shaved side, but not the other two guys (@12:53) who make up the gang pulling off the heist? I would say they all having some sort of shaved style is maybe thematic to their group. You know, 'cus gangs tend to have a "look" or signature to identify themselves. And since they're all crooks, wouldn't they all hate their daddies? No? Only her? Riiiiight. Sorry, but this sort of lazy boomer slagging is as dated as the haircut,. Then again, Mr. Birchum needs to find Season 2 writers somewhere.

wow that was way worse than I thought.

First of all... bullshit that we don't know more about Yaira after reading this.

Reading comprehension issues.

This felt more like a rant than a review.

The art is good, but the panels are bad, and Yaira is unlikable.

Funny your main compalint is about how wordy the comic is and you can't stop droning on. Fortunatly you make a few vaild points but your so desperate to nitpick heres some of your blah blah blah you could have cut. Oh no there are panels in a comic book. Too many for your likeing o.k. Were not blind point out your objection and move on. Her disguise is glasses. Well thats never been done before. How do the aliens find her. Oh I don't know. Do you suppose the gigantic sky beam thats similar to Yaira's powers might have something to do with it? Nah. How does she breathe in space? Uhm have you ever read a comic? He's not talking to Yaira. He's saying Yaira has been spotted, I'm leaving. Oh no she fell in love with the first man she met. Have you ever read a comic? You call that a qtip? Were you born with elephant ears?

I honestly think that Eric July was legally required to no longer use the name Isom. So he’s relying on his other Rippaverse characters to carry the universe. Why else would Isom #3 (the Rippaverse’s main headliner character) be taking so long to come out from the company? Why else are all the other second rate Rippaverse characters getting a book out before Isom#3. Eric has to rename the Isom character I bet. Time will tell. Von, is the name Isom mentioned anywhere in Yaira #1?