Written by: Mark London
Art by: Carlos Reno
Colours by: Jão Canola
Letters by: Dave Sharpe
Cover: Rossi Gifford
Published by: Mad Cave Studios
(There will be spoilers)
At a compound in the woods, a secret cabal known as the ‘Order Of Nine’ controls the affairs of the world in order to make it a ‘better place’. One of their making. In order to make things better, they do it the old-fashioned way-assassins. Taking out those who are counter to their way of life and the way the world should run according to their beliefs.
Their top agent, known as Revolution 9, was raised in an orphanage with her twin sister until her sister had the chance to have a new life and was adopted, leaving her alone in the orphanage until she too was adopted, but instead of a nice new life somewhere far away, she was trained to be a soldier. Combat. Weapons, stealth. Assassination. She gets a new life, one that she believes is making a difference in the world. But that outlook is broken when she is sent after a target. All she knows is the name and location, and she does her job as perfectly as always, but the victim this time is her twin sister. Forced to rethink her life, she secretly sets about bringing down the group that raised and trained her.
Being sent on her next assignment, she doesn’t do the job; instead, she saves him. He is a hacker who has downloaded all the info on the Order, and they want him eliminated and the info destroyed. Her backup team, once friends now foes, hunt for her and the target. But she has been ready for this for a long time; she has friends and others she has helped in the past, and with them, she keeps the target safe while she plans her next move in taking down the Order.
They’re soon going to realize that a revolution is coming straight for them.
This was a great opening issue. We get the back story through flashbacks, one-sided with hints at the darker secrets she doesn’t know or realize. We see the effect her actions and those of the Order have created but not the exact reasoning, which is something that’ll be interesting to see unfold over the course of the mini. And how this book and characters tie into the larger universe; Mr. London has and is weaving through the various series that are coming and the several that have already been published.
The artwork by Carlos Reno is wonderful. Able to do both action with fluid movement and static scenes, those parts that carry the story that are a lot of the times ignored by people who only want the action movie parts. Facial expression and body help convey the emotion of the moment. Just wonderful stuff.
The colour palette used by Jao Canolo captures each setting. Whether the lush forest of the compound, the dreariness of the orphanage or the rapid changes between the action shots, does a great job of enhancing the art. Again, great job all around for the art.
And the solid lettering by Dave Sharp gives us a clean, easy-to-follow read without blocking or impeding the flow of the art/story. When lettering is bad, you know, when it’s done right, you never really notice it’s there.
Wonderful team. Really looking forward to how it’s all going to play out. Come for the story, stay for the art team.
Mad Cave has just been, no pun intended, killing it the last few years with their series’, just wonderful stuff and is one of, if not the only, publisher that has a yearly open creator submission call for new talent. So they’re giving back to the community as a whole by giving those who normally would never get the chance to do something like this. So kudos to them and all the wonderful people who have gotten the chance to work on things for them.
My rating? 8/10. It would be higher, but I’ll rarely judge a first issue as perfect on its own. How it ties in together by the end of the series/story and then going back to look over it may change my mind, but on the whole a wonderful, solid first issue and laying the groundwork for what is to come.
I had fun, and to me, that’s the most important metric as anything, whether comic, novel, movie, TV show, game or whatever else you give your time and money to than perfection.
Give it a chance; if it grabs your attention like it did me, look for the other things coming and the next issue.
Questions? Comments? Theories? Postulations? Unknowable assumptions about life, the universe and everything else?
Till next time…
Overall: 8/10
Lifelong comic, movie, tv and book fan.
