Dynamite Entertainment 2017
Story by Pierce Brown
Written by Rik Hoskin
Illustrated by Eli Powell
Coloured by Jordan Boyd
Lettered by Tom Napolitano
Maybe it’s just me but I don’t remember young adult series being quite like this when I was a young adult. Either that or perhaps I went from those kids stuff to adult stuff and bypassed them altogether. Thankfully nowadays these YA series are so incredibly well done that they crossover into a wider appeal across pretty much all age groups. What’s all that about, it’s a long winded way of saying i’m not familiar with this series and that this is my introduction and it’s an amazing premise.
That Pierce put this kind of thought into his world is great and that the genetic engineering of people destined for certain planets was nicely explained. I also like the fact that this inherently doesn’t solve a “class” problem but instead keeps one going and in some instances fuels the flames. I mean how humiliating to be a laborer when you your mind wants to be something else but you know you can never be anything other than what you were engineered to be? It’s both fascinating and frightening on so many levels.
How Rik decides to interpret this for us is pretty amazing to see. This has no impact upon the novels themselves as it takes place between books. So in essence it means we need to go out to find these books lol. So with the story by Pierce and Rik scripting it we get this amazing blend by the series creator and one of today’s most impressive writers. That this story focuses on a fringe group of I don’t want to say terrorists or freedom fighters but they are very much along those lines. Folks who are disgruntled with their way of life and being the “colour” they are have no choice in what happens to band together this way is great to see. It crosses bridges and shows that regardless of the age “man” will choose his own destiny time and again and that’s strong stuff even if they go about it the wrong way.
Eli and Jordan do some wonderful work on the interiors here. I love the style of the masks, meant to hide identities, representing the pantheons of old gods. The gritty no-nonsense take on this world and how it looks leaves a great impression. The utilisation of page layouts through their angles, perspective and the use of backgrounds, god they are wonderful to see when used, really set scene and give the reader a great sense of drama.
I do like the back story we get here that directly ties into the main one and we see how even among their own kind there are still outcasts. I think this story as it begins is one about the human spirit and the will to be free, live your own life without having to bow to anyone. Also what lengths there are those that will go to in order to attain that. History has a funny way of looking at those individuals as either terrorists, freedom fighters or revolutionaries it’s up to you decide what you see here.