A little different kind of history.
Creative Staff:
Story: Victor Gischler
Art: Tazio Bettin
What They Say:
Before he fathered a nation, young George Washington forged his legend in blood! Imbued with the mystical powers of America’s original inhabitants, George—along with his friends Ben Franklin and Paul Revere—must stop an evil governor who wishes to rule an empire!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Historical fiction has been a thing for a long time and I’ve certainly enjoyed my reinventions and reworkings over the years, particularly when it comes to Harry Turtledove novels. We’ve also had some amusing reinventions along the way, such as Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter and that’s something that will come to mind when thinking about The Order of the Forge. While not comparing the two works, there’s definitely the same kind of echos in taking a well known historical figure and showing us a secret history to them, similar to the Sleepy Hollow TV series, which I do find quite enjoyable. Here, we get back to Washington in his younger days that starts us off in 1753 where he’s making quite the break from his father and we get this “truth” about the cherry tree and its meaning – and how it was chopped down.
For Washington, he’s struggling with his place in the world and the way his father wants certain things from him in terms of marriage and business, but he’s more intent on finding his own way rather than the one being given to him. That has him going off on his own, but in doing so he takes a few whacks at the precious cherry tree on his way out, which causes a supernatural event that reveals a totem pole in the woods by the property. It’s kind of surreal and not laid out too smoothly, but his interactions with it has him changed, as energy from it burns a symbol on his hatchet that he won’t leave behind, and it causes his eyes to glow green for awhile. Suffice to say, Washington is a changed man here before he goes off into the world. A world that just six months later has him in Philadelphia doing simple work for meager wages, but feeling good because it’s honest work of his own making.
What we get for the book from here is more a getting to know the cast in this form as he’s working for a man named Hammond with plans to change the colonies through the acquisition of a secret weapon. To do so, he’s brought in his niece, whose mother hailed from India, as a secret sacrifice. While she’s uncertain of her reasons for being there beyond family, she’s well attended to by Washington and Revere – at least when they’re not out trying to get Benjamin Franklin out of the brothel so he can run his lightning experiments in the storm that’s about to hit. Through these four characters and their quick introductions here, we do fill in some of the blanks through our own historical knowledge, and there’s a kind of inherent fun and goofiness in seeing them in this form as opposed to the staid and proper way we typically have them presented in history. It does revisit the supernatural side towards the end, albeit lightly with a lightning strike, but mostly it’s just getting a sense of the time and the people throughout this issue.
In Summary:
The Order of the Forge has a lot of company when it comes to historical fiction these days, both in film and TV as well as books and even other comics. This series is going in a lighter tone overall, playing with history and keeping some elements while ejecting others and inserting the supernatural side. There’s a superficial feeling about it to a degree because it’s moving through things fairly quickly and it introduces a lot of moving pieces in its first issue, which is met with mixed results. It just feels like it needed a bit more grounding first, especially for those that have forgotten more history than they know after being removed from schooling for so many years, and a deeper sense of menace or something more concrete on the supernatural side. I just feel like I’m not able to really grab onto something here because there’s so much going on. It has a good look overall and hits the right notes in general, though I think Bettin is better suited elsewhere with his art than here. I’ve enjoyed his other works but this one just doesn’t feel like it clicks fully. There’s a sense of superficiality about it rather than something stronger and more intense, or connected. I’m definitely curious to see where it goes though, simply because of the fun of reworking these historical figures in new ways.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: April 29th, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
