Under The Influence from Mad Cave Studios is a nail-biting look into new cult leaders, social media influencers. In this spy thriller, readers bear witness to how getting these people under control is a struggle; not just for the powers that be, but the user of the persona. With the album’s release on January 30 in bookstores and the 31st in comic stores, it’s worth looking into.
Series Backbone
Have you ever been amazed/frustrated at seeing the Paul Brothers succeed at something? Maybe it’s how Logan’s sports drinks have become more common? Or how expensive their how-to package deals are? Yet you’ll risk it to get a chance at success? Maybe how businesses are using micro-influencers at the influencer’s risk while making guides to protect themselves?
Do you think that maybe the government should step in when things go too far? The UK is already trying to… others haven’t been so good at it. Just search on how the US is trying to handle TikTok.
That’s the crux of Under the Influence.
Under The Influence: The New Crusades
Eliot Rahal goes into how a campaign trend has become something like a ritual. When a micro-influencer is trying to raise his social media profile through a challenge, it feels like an escape from mundane life. But when it causes a bigger spectacle that topples a company, there’s something rotten around the corner. Not only did the micro-influencer’s accident get drowned out, the only one who seemed to benefit was the trend starter. Almost as if the micro-influencer made a sacrifice to Paul Kozac without knowing it.
Tips To See If Your Influencer Has Power Over You
Just look at how the artists present how Paul becomes the central meme. Remember what first gets the reader’s interest? That opening scene is full of body tensing atmosphere with how crowded Stefano Simeone makes the gas station market and a watcher’s bedroom look. Like there’s already so much going on, the mundanity feels suffocating.
In juxtaposition is the coloring Simeone employs. Most of the setting in this scene looks dull in darker cooler and warmer colors. But glowing screened devices give audiences a glimmer of something interesting amid all of the hustle. That is until this scene turns tragic as the background fades out in red hues and SFX by Frank Cvetkovic.
Afterwards a couple of nine-panel grid pages show a controlled yet chaotic transition as people react to everything related to the accident. Some of the people show some distinctions with spikier word balloons to bigger font words to showcase their personalities. It makes coming back to a red picture of a young Paul even more memorable as this stimuli literally surrounds him. All while the micro-influencer becomes a fatality statistic no one cares about.
How Transparency Can Manipulate
Everyone from the characters and the reader are prepped to look at Paul like some powerful figure. To the campaign followers, he’s like some messiah for how the challenge exposed corrupt business practices. But to the FBI, he’s hyped to be some kind of abusive pastor. So through our viewpoint character Cara Cole, who’s more familiar with the influencer and cult landscapes, readers experience Paul the way people play Commander Shepard. She knows the tips and tricks influencers use, making her a great counterbalance with the reader caught off guard by the first issue’s end. Because being transparently aware of a persona’s effect on people can easily be a ploy for Paul to get Cara on his side.
As for Cara, she is more than capable of manipulating the reader by the next issue. By putting Paul’s explanation to her about his role in the party in juxtaposition to Cara’s childhood experience with her local church, Paul’s dialogue loses impact.
This way readers are more than compelled to take her side when readers experience the way these two control variables. Paul tends to influence people from a distance, reluctantly using martyrs to succeed. But he never puts himself at risk unless he gets something out of it. Meanwhile, Cara is willing to not only take responsibility, but actually interact with Paul’s party to find common ground. Sometimes that means letting other people take the lead rather than make it about her. It’s a real demonstration of transparency as a tool at its worst and best.
Are You Under The Influence?
Under The Influence has all of the makings of a great spy thriller. In a scenario that feels a bit close to home, it feels like people could get obsessed the deeper they dive into it. Much like the POV character, the reader might not want to let go when something does go wrong. The intrigue factor when it comes to mounting tensions feels just like doomscrolling through a social feed. So this series gets 9/10.
Thanks for coming to the end and as always remember to look between the panels.