In this review of Neighborhood Watch #1, we meet Bianca and Val, two women with very different lifestyles.
Neighborhood Watch #1
Writer: Sarah Gailey
Art and Main Cover: Haining
Variant Covers: Suspiria Vilchez, Jenny Frison, Haining
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: 4/8/2026
This review contains spoilers
Neighborhood Watch #1 starts off with the discovery of someone lying in a puddle of their own blood, with both discoverers And so, things go back a bit to the beginning. We’re seeing a glimpse of Willow Haven, an apparently idyllic, straightlaced suburb. Then there’s a full page devoted to the Open Arms Intentional Collective: a peaceful-looking place, which seems so full of life.
In Willow Haven, there’s a Home Owner’s Association meeting, where they’re discussing appropriate lawn décor and neighborhood watch assignments. At Open Arms, they’re having a debate about the eggplant and cilantro gardening situations.
The Willow Haven HOA scenes introduce Bianca: she’s established as a fan of wine, being willing to suggest colors outside of the norm for people’s fences because it’d be fun, and being in a relationship with the already-married leader of the HOA Jill.
Open Arms’s scenes focus mostly on Val, who tries to avoid too much conflict with apparent-leader of the Collective, Cass. She’s told that she could easily go to midwife school and do well, but her preference is to be the kitchen steward.
The next day comes, and Bianca notices that Jill’s not around. And at Open Arms, Cass hasn’t been seen all day. Night falls, Bianca takes on the watch shift by herself, and stumbles upon a basement she didn’t know was there.
Open Arms, after a mishap with a shelving unit, Val finds a hidden doorway and goes to investigate.
Both women soon find themselves traversing a subway tunnel, where they find a woman that had been shot. One knows her as Jill, and the other as Cass. As Neighborhood Watch #1 ends, they soon take her out of the tunnel so that Val can try to patch her up, as Bianca promises revenge, demanding to know what the other one did to her.
The thing that jumps out to me right away with Neighborhood Watch #1 is the overall design for the Willow Haven scenes versus the Open Arms ones. With the only text being the welcome signs for each establishment, the artwork did an awesome job at making sure each was entirely distinct from one another.
With Willow Haven, it veers more toward cool tones. The gutters are a blue color. The outlines for the panels are straight and precise, with everything in its own little box. Much like how a Home Owner’s Association would like things.
For Open Arms, we’re more in warm tone territory. Gardening’s a huge thing for this establishment. The establishing page for them? Its lines are more curved and organic rather than straight. The gutters are more of an orange hue, the panels themselves have rounded corners.
It’s also pretty noticeable that in both of the meetings, there’s one member of the group whose face isn’t shown at all. It’s always hidden by something in the foreground, or a well-placed angle where we only see the back of her head. All the better to hide the fact that Jill and Cass seem to be the same person. Cass might be a redhead and Jill a blonde, but the face would still be the same.
At one point, Jill’s husband Erik is introduced. He’s a cop, and had claimed that Jill was off visiting her mother. I already suspect him, given that Willow Haven doesn’t seem like it’d have a wealth of firearms around. But as a cop? He’d have access to one. Plus, “visiting her mother” feels like the kind of excuse someone would come up with to cover an absence they’d caused. And there’s a possibility that he knows Jill was having an affair…pretty standard motive, right there. But at the same time, when flags that red come up this early on, it feels like there’d be more to it, and I look forward to seeing what that’d be.
Characterization-wise, Bianca already leaves a strong impression. From her introductory scene where she’s pouring herself a glass of wine at the meeting, suggesting a blue or purple fence, to the way she dresses (sweatshirt with a couple of anime-style eyes right there on the front), she seems like a fun character. And then we get to Val, who seems a bit more calm and reserved than Bianca. She mentions not wanting to push back against Cass too much, and that she’s had experience as a street medic.
I’m curious about where this will end up going. What would compel this woman to take on a double life in the first place (assuming it’s not a situation involving alternate universes bleeding into each other, of course).
Final Thoughts
Definitely keep an eye on Neighborhood Watch, which is giving quite the juicy mystery. Neighborhood Watch #1 sets up an intriguing mystery and leaves me looking forward to the investigation. Plus, the artwork is really nicely-done.
