Boom! Studios 2017
Story by Claudio Sanchez
Written by Chondra Echert
Illustrated by Rags Morales
Coloured by Emilio Lopez
Lettered by Ed Dukeshire
Reveling in a near victory over the galaxy’s malignant dictator, Wilhelm Ryan, Inferno stands to make his next move. But within the team of Rebels, discontent is brewing. Claudio Kilgannon—a key player in Ryan’s upheaval and the potential living instrument sent to end the universe—has begun to question the intentions of their own headstrong leader. Amidst Claudio’s confusion about his ability to change the path of his destiny and the growing lack of faith in Inferno’s direction, indecision has started to chip away at the long-held beliefs of those aboard the Grail Arbor—giving Ryan just the time he needs to reconfigure a new strategy for universal domination.
While the Amory Wars has been around before it’s nice to have a first issue in a new story arc that is new reader friendly. Granted we don’t know what’s come before but the flashbacks and the narration/characterisation that we get here is really good so it touches on the important stuff and gives the reader a great idea of what’s happeing. Sometimes it can be so hard to come into an established series but Claudio and Chondra do wonders with this so that while it’s able to stand alone you also want to go back and find the original so you can read that too.
A big draw for me wanting to read this is that Rags is working on the interiors. His eye for storytelling is fantastic as he uses page layouts with their angles, perspective and backgrounds beautifully. The attention to detail is phenomenal and the colouring that Emilio does is stellar and i’m more impressed with the way the light through those blinds hit that was a huge stand out moment for me. Overall the way this issue looks is hugely important in the enjoyment factor because it’s so detailed and so fresh and easy to see the emotions of the characters.
I do like that we are seeing three separate arcs running concurrently and that at some point they will all merge into a bigger picture. For now it’s nice to see how the factions are living their lives and finding themselves at this juncture. The training with Ambellina and Claudio and that wise little girl contrasting with the off his meds young man seeing an angel and how they could be connected yeah it’s a great thing to think of. Why because it engages the mind and that we wonder about it means the story is working.
As an added bonus House Atlantic and General Crom yeah that’s just pure fun too. I love a good villain and well you don’t get much better than this. They he sees himself yeah it’s brilliantly portrayed for us.
I like that you can start this without fear of missing something and that it piques the interest in what’s come before. It’s well written, executed and visually stunning.