I'm a sucker for a good crime story: I like the gritty underbelly of city life, and the valiant efforts of the cops who want to make it all right. Perhaps that's what drew me to Point of Impact, a new series that's being published by Image Comics.

It tells the story of a mysterious murder and the different players that took part in it: the victim's husband, friends and secret lover all play a part. However, is it worth our time, or does it fall flat out of the gate?

Things I liked:

• The cover to this book is amazing, and I really have to give it to Koray Kuranel. The black and white motif coupled with a heavy dose of ink just set the tone for the entire story, and almost acts like another page (showing the victim being thrown off a roof). It's rare to see a cover that takes such an active role in the telling of the story, because usually it's all hype - it wants the reader excited about what's going to be happening when they open the cover.

Things I didn't:

• For a crime story, this book fell a little flat in its first issue. It introduced characters, the victim, the crime and the backstory, but for some reason there was little here to hook me for a second issue. Sure, I want to know more about what/why things happened, but it's like the opening of a TV show like Law & Order; there has to be something that makes the viewer say "this isn't a normal crime."
• And that's not to say Point of Impact doesn't have that; there are enough twists and variables that are thrown into the story to make it as "non-standard" as possible. However, the lack of context to these twists really leaves me scratching my head - why am I supposed to care that the victim had a secret lover if I didn't know anything about her in the first place? Why is it a big deal that her killer is supposedly a Marine?
• Outside of the amazing cover, the book really has this "85% realism, 15% cartoon" thing going on with its art that I'm not too impressed with. Faces in particular seem to over-emphasize emotion to the point that it makes otherwise-serious moments silly. That's not what you want in a drama.

Point of Impact #1
Image Comics
$2.99

The Verdict: I really wish I could score this book higher, but until it gives me a reason to read it again I have to give it two cop shops out of five. Not a horrible book by any means, but its mediocre elements (art, story) stick out like sore thumbs.