I am really liking this first volume of the series, the Enemies of the State. Im going to write this reaction backwards, though, telling you its 'not so good' points to wade to my conclusion. Unfortunately there are a lot of good and bad points to this product which should be concidered, but I found it well worth its purchase price.

As you can see from the cover, the art isnt spectacular. The normal artwork for ICONS is this 'Jonny Phantom/Almost Power Puff Girls' theme of simple ovals stacked and drabed with candy colored tights and with a few capes or skulls or whatever thrown on. This is very far from that mark. These are what look like fashion posed sketches of someone with some talent. Like that stoner in the back of class who just doodled all day long in the back of the class, you know the guy. Some of the pictures were kind of dispoportional... like wrists so thin, they would have to beak just opening a door. Its mildly disturbing... as if you had walked into a world populated by impressionist screamers or something. They do thier job and show you how this one villian wears his clothing and might look posed in the middle of executing some diabolical plan. My other main complaint, and to me it isnt a biggie, is the layout. It might have been the look they were going for... the 'seventies/eighties comic book' letterhead over each entry. If so, bravo on the nostalgia, but the whole production felt kind of amaturish as far as the presentation and artwork. Now this is mostly based on comparison with the normal ICONS products, which always feels silver age slick to me. This feels like a golden age product by fawcet comics or some other defunct company from that time. Finally, this product was first made as a M&M sourcebook, terminologies still get batted around, unfound by the substitute program they used or whatever. You have to figure out on your own what a 'WILL save' is... which I use as a Willpower ability check with a 0 set difficulty. This can be distracting.

Now I saved the best for last. What do I like about it. First off, it is inexpensive. This is the first selling point I want to make, for a nice price you get some good material. There is very little commitment... read one and if you like it, get the others. Try the water, get out if its too cold in here for you. Secondly, I like that it doesnt have the normal 'slick silver age' theme. This feels like golden age or thug level material. I am so tired of silver age, I have my own world set up with a more golden age theme... a 'what if the comics code never happened' alternative to modern comic books set up completely on magic rather than 'wacky radiation'. If you like to walk off the silver age path, I think this gives you an interesting set of archetypes to build from. Also I found the thought and themes involved were interesting and different from most products of this type. I like the real world grounding with the states, rather than having everyone come from Metropolis or Gothum City or something. I even liked how most of the characters were dressed in what amounts to real world clothing and didnt all sport 'domino masks' of some sort.

So my conclusion is this. I was torn what rating to leave this target before finally settling on a three. I liked the writing and what it is doing. I might not have liked how I felt while looking at the pics and letterhead and such, but that is really only secondary to what I really wanted. Though I liked the price of these products, I hope in the future Victory RPG will put in a few more characters per book. There are fifty states to be covered and Id hate to count the costs later and find the whole set costed me over a dollar a state. I dont even care if they ever fix or whatever the pictures and layout... just throw in a 'just 5 cents' square in the corner or something to make it look like an old comic book cover to me would just be choice and distinquish it nicely from normal ICONS books. It would make me happier if they could weed out more of the 'M&M'isms, but I understand my main system, ICONS, is only a second run audience for them. Its just a small gipe, and usually with a bit of thought I can figure out what to do around it.

I look forward to more Victory RPG products in this line. This is only the first volume. Maybe the others will hone in a bit more and I could give them a four. I see a lot of potential and value here.