The premise behind Caitlin Kittredge (writer) and Steven Sanders’ Throwaways is interesting. The title refers to someone involved in the world of espionage, slang that basically means you’re a dispensable assassin meant to die along with your target(s).

The story, at first, takes a bit to get a hold of, as it’s presented in a non-linear fashion that forces you to play catch up – which I’m all for. I’d prefer this over “Here’s a page of exposition, now you can enjoy the story,” so there’s some intelligence here and also a little fudging on clarity.

Abby is a trained killer/ex-soldier who witnesses one of her ex-soldier friends kill a room of people before killing himself. While on active service, they were both at a mysterious place called Camp Cheshire.

Dean is kind of punk, Mohawk and all, who has a maybe girlfriend hacker. Dean’s dad is in prison, and possibly might have been some kind of terrorist. Some government-military wonks want to kidnap him, and that could be because he exhibits some kind of strange power.

These stories, of course, intertwine in a compelling way, and we begin to find out that not everyone is who they say they are.

There’s always a risk of letting this sort of story become bogged down in the mire of self-seriousness, but Kittredge approaches this with wit and charm. Sanders’ art is dynamic and fairly photo-realistic, which I like in this case. It feels a bit like watching a movie. The paneling and some of the visuals tricks used to induce intensity are really well thought out. When someone unexpectedly fires a gun, some sharp angled lines are added to split the image into sections which puts you into the shoes of the other characters. A person’s world sort of splits apart in moments like that. Some cool visuals really bring this story to life. I find myself on the side of liking this espionage thriller and look forward to seeing where it goes.