Valiant Entertainment 2017
Written by Joe Harris
Illustrated by Cafu
Coloured by Andrew Dalhouse
Lettered by Dave Sharpe
I like that Joe demonstrates Aric’s return to Earth and his subsequent conversion to this new way of thinking. Granted we don’t get to see what it is exactly that’s done to Aric to change his thinking or who exactly is behind the latest Divinity arc but we see it happen. This means that Aric remembers a time before being conditioned to think like this. That means there’s hope for him to come out of this stupor and fight to make the world the way it should be. Of course that could very well just be me supposing or hoping but that I can see that glimmer of hope is what’s important. It means Joe’s story is structured incredibly well and leaves the reader thinking long term instead of just what’s on the page.
That Aric arrives in his regular armour isn’t the only surprise in story for us from Joe here. He takes this opportunity to really delve into a realm of what’s going on that may surprise readers. It did me and it makes perfect sense as well. There are other realms that have close ties to Earth and they may not have been completely shaped to this new Russian regime. So seeing what we do here once again really does add a few more layers to the story and make the reader think about what has occurred.
Cafu does some incredible work on the interiors here as well. With Andrew they really manage to take little moments and make them stand out and memorable. The hammer and sickle flags on the Colosseum for example or the change in Aric’s armour colour. The use of page layouts through angles, perspective and the utilisation of backgrounds really bring us into the story beautifully. Plus there are a couple moments that are purely visual that take the story and change it’s face value as we see in the ending here.
As these characters are explored in their new reality we see more and more that the new Russian Empire aren’t as benevolent or beneficial as they’d like us to believe. It goes alongside that concept that “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” to a level that we rarely see. I do want to see more of this explored and as far as alternate universes go this one is far and away one of the few that makes the reader want to explore it. It doesn’t detract from what is but gives us a chance to explore what could be before it all ends, or does it?
The characterisation here is superbly done. We see a myriad of characters in play and their motivations are as murky as they are. It’s the kind of stuff that as a reader I gravitate towards because it means there’s more than meets the eye. All I know after reading this is that I want to see more, I want to see Aric break free of this conditioning and rise up and truly rebel. Maybe that’ll happen maybe it won’t but that the desire for that has been planted well that’s saying alot.
Valiant continues to bring us strong, powerful storytelling using some of today’s best talent to thrill and entertain us. I’m constantly amazed at how much I enjoy these books and how much they are able to worm their way inside my mind and imagination.