Titan Comics 2017
Written by Ram V
Illustrated by Alan Quah
Coloured by Komikai Studio & Feat. Sean Lee
Lettered by Rob Steen
Two decades ago, a lone Marine stepped through the Slipgate and into a world of
nightmares. Trapped in these realms ever since, time and delirium have eroded his resolve
and even his name. Now, that same marine finds himself wandering a strange but familiar landscape, where grim fighters from the far reaches of the hellverse battle through monstrous dimensions in search of subsistence and salvation. Trained to kill, scavenge, survive and locked in a never-ending gauntlet of bullets and bloodshed, only one of these Champions shall prevail…
Well there are a couple things you need to know about this, A. it’s not going to be anything near what you are expecting and B. there’s a definite method to the madness that will hit you like a ton of bricks. Here once again is a video game turned into a comic book and I have to say that Titan is the only place where this happens as successfully as it can be done.
Ram’s storytelling here is kind of amazing and all over the place with a real ebb and flow to it. It feels disjointed at times, but here’s a secret I think it’s supposed to, however to my knowledge there isn’t a much more effective way to showcase Ranger’s state of mind and where he’s at emotionally. The way he’s able to make the story flow and how closely that becomes associated with how we see Ranger is a thing of beauty.
Speaking of beauty if you haven’t seen Alan’s work yet you need to get on this. He’s got this eye for detail, the patience to showcase this much attention to detail his use of backgrounds puts his contemporaries to shame. How page layouts are utilised through their angles and perspective are stunning and show off the right scope and depth of the world. His imagination and creativity are on full display as the characters are brought to life here. Then the colouring on this is simply and utterly divine to finish off the whole effect.
There are a number of times throughout this issue that I sat and wondered what the high holy hell was going on here. That however never stopped me from continuing and made my resolve to know and learn that much stronger. After all this is a beautiful world and Ranger is the type that immediately is likeable. He’s the kind of guy you find yourself rooting for and thinking hey he’s alright. Though he may have more screws loose than the Mad Hatter that matters not.
The story development, pacing and characterisation is phenomenal. Hell I may not know exactly what’s happening yet be there’s enough here to know that you want Ranger to get home and finally after decades of solitude and nonstop killing to see what that does to him around other humans. How will this experience have changed him fundamentally? Oh yeah and it has to there’s no way it can’t. It turns into this gripping look at humanity and what it means to be sane and that is the grayest of grey areas.