Titan Comics 2020
Written by Anne Toole
Illustrated by Ann Maulina
Coloured by Bryan Valenza
Lettered by Jim Campbell
Aloy and Talanah return in a new story set after the events of the game! Nature has reclaimed the planet. Awe-inspiring machines dominate the land, as humanity fights for survival on this new Earth.
Hotly anticipated by the gaming folk, video gamers, this arc is supposed to bridge the gap between the first and the next game to be released. For me it is my introduction to this world and I have to say that it is extremely new reader friendly. With all the bonus stuff that comes with it you can read up before or after finishing the story and feel right at home being in this world. Titan has a way of taking video game franchises and turning them into stand alone hit comics series and if this is any indication then they’ve gone and done it again. I thoroughly enjoyed this issue and look forward to seeing what else is on the horizon.
The way that this is being told is extremely well done. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is well thought out. I am particularly fond of how the cast of characters are introduced throughout and how they seem to either be one of’s or possibly recurring people in Aloys live. The character development that we see here is superbly done. The dialogue between characters and how we see them act and react to the circumstances and situations they find themselves in tells us a lot about them and it’s done rather quite well. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the world and its inhabitants we see how well everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow.
There are a few things that I find extremely interesting about what we see here. It is a pre-industrial age for the humans and yet they take down the robots, scavenge them for parts, so what do they do with them? Also I like seeing their dress as it feels very feudal Japan to me. There is something about seeing this that has some feeling like peasants and others warriors so it is as if what they wear identifies them in their society. I could be looking too much into things but that I am engaged at this level goes to show what the quality and level of storytelling we see is capable of having on the reader.
The interiors here are very interesting to me. I like that they kind of have this cartoon tone and feel to it with the backgrounds having a totally different tone to them causing a really nice effect visually. The linework is great and how we see the varying weights being utilised to show the attention to detail is really rather well rendered. The utilisation of the backgrounds to showcase the setting, bring us depth perception, a sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkable eye for storytelling. The colour work is utterly brilliant. How we see these contrasting styles done between the backgrounds and the main characters views is so beautiful and beautifully done! How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is literally brilliant.
You’d never know that this is a video game without being told. How it is written so intelligently and how the book is structured is well done, along with these gorgeous interiors we see we feel like we are being welcomed into this world for the first time. You should NOT pass this up, it is just so much fun.