
Dark Horse Comics 2017
Written by Cullen Bunn
Illustrated by Eric Nguyen
Coloured by Jeremy Colwell & Lee Loughridge
Lettered by Simon Bowland
Atriox, the legendary Brute under the command of the alien collective known as the Covenant, leads a Brute assault against a UNSC military outpost. Wave after wave of Brutes are lost attacking the human outpost defended by a group of UNSC marines, the ruthless Atriox soldiers on. As his comrades fall, Atriox's hatred for the Covenant grows.
I’ve said it before i’ll say it again, i’m not a gamer. That being said there’s a fascination I get when any of these types of stories comes out. While I may not play the game I love the idea behind it and how such worlds have been created, fleshed out and brought to life. Also it doesn’t hurt that Cullen Bunn is writing this issue either as I find his work to be some of the more gripping stuff out there these days.
This is going to be an anthology series where different creators come in and tell stories based off one character. I will say whomever decided to use this one first was a pretty smart cookie. One of the things I really like about this was that Atriox wasn’t really featured that much and instead we get a look at the humans that are here and how they react to Atriox and the locals attacking them. While I may not be privy to the real reason for the attack I can sumise that perhaps the humans used Atriox and his people and that this is essentially payback for their treatment at their hands. Regardless I’m more than a little sad that Sergeant Kress was only around for short time.
Eric’s work on the interiors here is marvelous! I love that he decided to do his style of work here and not try to emulate the game graphics. The linework is distinctly his and I love the way it comes off on the page. I’m impressed with his eye for storytelling here and how he’s utilised the layouts on the pages with their angles and perspective. Also the way we see these backgrounds just fleshes out the story beautifully and the attention to detail in them is as good as it is in the main focus.
Cullen manages to tell a story from two angles here while showcasing only one. It’s a mad genius feat to be able to do that. Keeping Sergeant Kress guessing as to why they continue to press their attacks and wiping out anyone and everyone left at the base. Her last ditch effort against Atriox was spectacularly well orchestrated and the whole thing was a perfect introduction to this character and his world.
Dark Horse has always had huge success with this whole outer space action/adventure drama with horror fringed genre stuff. It’s nice to see that niche is well represented because this is some of the finest storytelling around through both words and visuals. It’s books like this that keep Dark Horse in the forefront of genre and keep us coming back for more!