Cosmic Truce, Super-Powered Amnesiac Aliens, And Global Conspiracy: Stronghold Volume 1 TP

Michael Grey thinks he’s an average person, living out an average life on Earth. But he couldn’t be more wrong. Michael is really a being of incalculable power, stranded with no memory, protected and jailed by THE STRONGHOLD, a secret group that has only one goal: keep Michael Grey from regaining his power and facing the Adversary. When one of their own falls in love with Grey, all bets are off. Slowly, Grey regains his powers. What happens next could destroy Earth as we know it.

Michael Grey is an interesting cat. In the opening sequence of Stronghold Volume 1, this mild mannered insurance underwriter throws all caution to the wind and leaps headlong into a river to save a child trapped in a car beneath the rushing water.
Why? Makes no sense. This guy is all about risk evaluation. He leapt on a hunch. A feeling that he could make a difference. That he could be MORE. And he was right. Turns out, he’s an all powerful extraterrestrial being, whose lack of knowledge about his own origin is the only thing standing between mankind and the utter and complete destruction of Earth.
Then, there’s this girl Claire, whose family belongs to a secret society (read cult) that’s only purpose is placating Grey and keeping him ignorant of his own omnipotence. Claire is at the end of her “gap year,” which is The Stronghold’s version of Amish Rumshpringe. Members have to leave the enclave for a calendar year and decide whether they’ll take the vow and dedicate their lives to the cause, or leave forever and lose all contact with their families forever.
Oh yeah. The girl’s kind of in love with the alien and really, really wants to spill the beans, even though it could very well spell her own violent demise, along with everyone else’s on the planet. 

Phil Hester leans into a whole lot of science fiction and superhero tropes with Stronghold, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Tropes stick around for a reason, and the way Hester weaves them together creates opportunities for some very interesting scenarios to play out. The characters are interesting and whole. Flawed, yes. I mean, like, seriously flawed, but they come by their eccentricities honestly. 
Ryan Kelly and Dee Cuniffe do an amazing job visually blending the absolutely bonkers with the perfectly mundane in Stronghold. It doesn’t even look odd seeing a seven foot cross between Groot and a Roswell Grey wearing Surtur’s crown interacting with average human folk. 
Kelly’s linework has a throwback feel that calls back to some of the more memorable titles from the nineties. Slightly too-large heads on excessively curved and muscled bodies, big fat gutters that pull the eye through sequences. It’s a well used style, but fits the tone of Stronghold. Cinematic layout and composition add to the tension and gravity of the more horrific scenes, while the characters display subtle, nuanced emotion in the quieter moments. Cunniffe provides an effective emotional barometer through shifts in palette and light sources.

A little bit Truman Show, some Resident Alien, MIB, and some backward Matrix concepts, there’s a lot to unpack in Stronghold. Thankfully, the creative team gives it up in manageable little chunks. This thing backtracks and changes direction a few different times. You’ll think you have it all sorted a few times. You won’t have it sorted, really. At all. That’s likely the point.

Stronghold Volume 1 TP, collects chapters 1-5, AfterShock Comics, released 02 October 2019. Created by Phil Hester, Ryan Kelly, and Tyler Walpole. Script by Phil Hester, art by Ryan Kelly, color by Dee Cunniffe, letters by Simon Bowland, TP cover and original covers by Ryan Kelly with Dee Cunniffe, variant covers by Phil Hester with Dee Cunniffe and Tyler Walpole, logo by Emma Price, book designed by Corey Breen, edited by Mike Marts.