Titan Comics 2017
Written by Ian Edginton
Illustrated by Valeria Favoccia
Coloured by Carlos Lopez
Lettered by Tom Williams
To mark 10 glorious year of Assassin’s Creed, Titan Comics are bringing together the franchise’s best-loved characters for a celebratory series like no other! Get ready for four brand new adventures starring fan favorite Assassins like Edward Kenway and Altair, along with the series’ celebrated Renaissance roof-crawler, Ezio Auditore de Firenze!
This is brilliantly done for me anyway. It’s a great way to look at the franchise, learn who the players in the game are and still learn about the factions and why they are kind of at odds with one another. Alright so yes Otso is a bad guy and I don’t care if you agree with that or not but he’s the kind we like to hate and the kind we root for and against because he’s so deliciously bad. Seeing him initiate things here and using the pretense of the Black Cross and know thine enemy as his mantra we get to see more of the most memorable characters that have made the game a success.
Not only that but Ian gets to have some fun along the way by tying in famous people and their accomplishments into the history of these mythical organisations. How cool is that to think that an Assassin and Leonardo Da Vinci were as tight as they appear to be and that the Mona Lisa secrets could be revealed as they are here. I mean c’mon this is what makes the series so damn fun is that Ian can take the past and insert ideas to make the franchise coexist and fit into history while keeping this as entertaining as possible. Doesn’t hurt that a few folks might learn who some historical figures are and what they are famous for either.
Valeria and Carlos do some amazing work on the interiors. I love the traditional comic book style and feel that we get here. Then mix it with some sketches in the faces on those monitors and yeah it’s got this whole feel to it that sets it apart. The use of page layouts through their angles, perspective and even the backgrounds really bring this to life beautifully. The faces and facial expressions are tremendously well done and bring more characterisation.
So while Osto does his thing behind everyone else’s back and uses the animus to look at aspects of the lives of these people, under the pretense of learning, we do get to learn. We see how Otso thinks and his how his reasoning works. We get this fantastic look at some characters i’ve never seen before but are instrumental to the franchise. Plus the creativity and imagination on display here from all involved really take this to a level that showcases how this medium is a storyteller’s paradise.
Also that much Italian is being used in the writing here and that it’s strategic enough so that we can understand what the word means by both where it’s placed and the visuals involved is magnificent.
While I may not be a video game guy I am a story guy and this is the kind of stuff I naturally gravitate towards!