EDITOR's NOTE: Contract #1 will be available in stores Wednesday, July 30th.

Contract is set in a future where mercenaries are the law, and they bid on jobs as if justice were up for sale on Ebay. A team of mercenaries take a job looking into a corporate kidnapping, but things seem to run a little deeper then just an abduction when they come across a room filled with dead bodies, all of which are missing their organs. Now the team not only has to find a missing girl, but also find out why the bodies have been harvested and for what the organs will be used.

Boy, do I wish it were 1988. Why? Because then Paul Verhoeven would be making an awesome movie version of this comic. Madeiros and Shell must be new to the industry -- I haven't seen anything else by them. If this is their first time out, good job. The writing is a nice pairing of wit and grit. The banter between the three main characters actually induces laughter. Congrats guys, you're now part of a very short list of writers who have gotten this reviewer to laugh out loud at a comic, and in a good way. It's fun, just plain good 'ole fun. The plot's interesting, it revolves around a kidnapping, but the take on it is what keeps it from being just another kidnapping story. And yeah, there are some things that hit the cliché button, but what hasn't been done already in the Sci-Fi genre?

The main characters are solid and well rounded, there's no questioning what motives they have, and they aren't in the least transparent. It's nice to see a woman (Jessie) take the lead character role that isn't bordering on über fem-Nazi; she has a heart, and can still kick some ass. Her seconds, Panzer and Tsumi, add that well-rounded team feeling; a triad of kick-assery. Panzer is the mech-armed strong man that some might call an action cliché, but I think that we've all seen enough Schwarzenegger films to know that a giant European guy who likes to break things makes action stories great. And Tsumi, he's the straight man (every team needs one), plus he's a ninja, and who doesn't love a dry witted ninja?

The art, for being done by several artists, is fantastic. You would think that with all of the pencilers they've got attached to this it would be a "too many cooks in the kitchen" scenario, but they seem to have a good flow going from chapter to chapter. The artwork is not as streamlined or vibrant as other futuristic books, but do we really need another silver jumpsuit fashion show? The world that this comic takes place in certainly isn't a beautiful one -- this future is a dirty place filled with organ harvesters and RPG programmed super robots. The art really fits the storytelling well.
Something new lettering wise, at least to me, was added: while talking through a phone/com link, the dialogue bubbles had a new technical pattern. That was something that stood out and was appreciated.

I don't get to use the word "tremendous" too often; I only bring it out when something really deserves it. Contract deserves it. Madeiros and Shell have created a first comic people should remember, but it's likely to get passed up in the store because it'll get buried behind the more popular comics on the shelf. That would be unfortunate and shouldn't happen.

Again – tremendous. Make sure you hunt this one out in the store. If you see it pushed to the back of the shelf, give it a bump to the front, and make some space for it. It needs love. It's a definite read for the fans of Total Recall and Cowboy Bebop.

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