Vault Comics 2018
Written by Dan Watters
Illustrated by Val Rodrigues
Coloured by Triona Farrell
Lettered by Aditya Bidikar
Roots, once suffocating under cement, tear through the streets of London to throttle buildings. Vegetable homunculi hold up banks with automatic weapons. There is a green and blooming world beyond our own, fighting back against the human pollutant. We will launch a rescue mission to this Otherworld. But it is cruel and unknowable, and should we become tangled in its vines, more than cities will fall.
This mixes a lot things for me, there’s this whole Arthurian legend stuff, some super secret paranormal governmental department and a bunch of beings that just shouldn’t exist all wrapped up here. There is something powerful about the opening where we see the sleeper awaken and it holds a lot promise for the series. The opening itself is exactly what Dan needs to make the reader question what the book is about and want to see more.
The way this book is structured is interesting to me because it seems like we get a lot of information but now way of understanding how they all fit. Do not underestimate the effect that has however because it totally made more interested in seeing where Dan was going to be taking all this. Sal Davids, I had high hopes for him and more so when Abigail approached him and we learned where exactly it was she worked. I get it he’s a means to an end but there was/is so much potential in him as a character after what we’ve seen so not about the bus scene.
I feel like there are three or four, well one kind of ties into another so 3 ½, arc s running simultaneously. If you pay attention each one will eventually merge into something else although what that is is anyone’s guess. Though I am thinking that our awakened warrior for whatever reason will have something to do with Sal in some way so I will keep my eyes peeled, just call it a gut instinct because something in my spidey sense just says it is. Meanwhile the Walker and whom he meets well that’s kind of weaves two together but who he is and why he’s important remains to be seen. I will say this I love that Dan has us so engaged in what’s happening here already. Plus when you start mucking about with the Isles mythology and those who dwelled there long before Arthur whom the Druids worshiped well it's kind of new territory for those in the States.
The interiors here are dynamic to say the least. The linework is so involved and intricate that it just makes what we see that much more mysterious and fascinating. The utilisation of page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows off a stellar eye for storytelling. Not so big on the backgrounds and for once I am okay with that as the swirling patterns that we see add some kind of psychedelic effect which is both interesting discerning at the same time. It really just adds that certain something that makes the story click that much more.
Vault has emerged and now if they can stay on a solid publishing schedule they will come into their own this year. The work is strong, the stories all science fiction at their core make for the kind of reading that could change the parameters of the genre for everyone else. This is fresh, fun, funky and fabulous storytelling and it makes me want more. When you find a book and after reading the first issue you want, and there’s a different between would like and want believe you me, more then you know you’ve found something worth holding onto.