A future state of Grace.
Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Wood
Art: Mack Chater
Colors: Lee Roughridge
Letterer: Nate Piekos of Blambot
What They Say:
On a quiet highway in the predawn light, Grace encounters a true test of her empathy and her strength when she comes face to face with the worst aspects of the community she’s struggling to take back.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Briggs Land has definitely been interesting in its first couple of issues, though I can already see how this will fare somewhat better on TV just by having more time to space things out with a different kind of pacing. A chance to get into the “cast” more and the setting through the visual designs. Mack Chater does some great stuff here in the locales and the feeling of it all but I can just see how the TV show can do some drone filming that will give this an expansive feeling whereas Chater is giving it a closed in and oppressive feeling. Both work well and it has me keen to see how each iteration of this project turn out. With this installment, Wood and Chater bring us to the close of the opening act, “State of Grace,” and it serves well to show just how Grace will be handling things.
It’s the kind of issue that works best as a fast read at first in order to feel the tension and pressure that mounts here before going back for a deeper reading. Part of what we get with this is some strong background material that dips back to 1985 with a younger Jim that’s in control, showing how he deals with those that are problematic. Killing one man that was a problem was simple enough for him, as the father of two girls abused them and likely his wife, but Jim views them as tainted and gives them just hours to get their things and leave. When you live almost all of your life here and have no real world experience, it’s brutal beyond words and we see a young Grace really angry about this but unable to change it because it is Jim’s world. It’s something that plays well into the present to show how she’ll win over support in the land but it also shows that, unlike Jim, she’s a far better leader because of her being empathetic to others.
The present day material is definitely solid as we see Grace having to deal with Ben Cauley coming after her as part of the hit from Jim Briggs and how she and Noah sets things up to deal with it. It’s a sequence that Chater handles very well with all of its chaos, but I’ll admit again to hoping for this to be a fantastic episode of TV with the visuals and design that can be done. The situation is tense and engaging and I love how it all goes south quickly with the Feds almost accidentally coming across it and getting involved, which will shake the course of events to some degree to be determined. Grace is definitely engaging to watch here and her reliance on Noah is going to be a strength that I hope we don’t see waver because we need her to have some truly solid allies.
In Summary:
Briggs Land is definitely shaping up well and I’ve enjoyed the first two issues and quite like how things are turning out here. The flashbacks are useful for establishing more of the nature and structure of the Land and past interactions, because history is huge and important in this as it shows how Grace will be changing things while trying to get back to the core ideas of it all. Wood keeps things simple on the dialogue side but moves events forward well in smaller and more personal ways. Chater delivers some great artwork throughout and gives it a very distinctive feeling, particularly with how Roughridge is handling the color design with the more striking moments and the run down aspects of the world itself here.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: October 12th, 2016
MSRP: $3.99
