A new threat arrives in Briggs Land.
Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Wood
Art: Mack Chater
Colors: Lee Roughridge
Letterer: Nate Piekos of Blambot
What They Say:
Isaac Briggs, fresh off a tour in Afghanistan and struggling to reintegrate, finds solace hiking the old forest trails. When two random backpackers wander onto the Land, an innocent situation quickly turns dangerous and Isaac’s military training takes a turn down a dark path. Welcome to Briggs Land, nearly a hundred square miles of rural wilderness, representing the largest antigovernment secessionist movement in the United States.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
It’s been six months since the end of the first miniseries for Briggs Land and now the creative team is back for the next round with Lone Wolves. Brian Wood’s opening salvo was a solid series that digs into an area that has a lot of conflicting views and approaches in the real world that allows for a lot of creativity in telling stories around. What helped to cement it as a really strong book as a whole was the combination with Mack Chater’s artwork as the project had such a grounded and earthy approach, especially with Lee Roughridge’s color work, that it had that weight of reality about it that made it click. This run is going to be more of the same in that regard and that’s a very big plus.
Wood runs this with a bit of a flashback approach as the book kicks off in the ostensible present with an array of forces aligned against Briggs Land based on some accusations related to a number of events. That has an FBI helicopter flyover getting a look at the place and the various alphabet groups outside keeping tabs on it all while trying to figure out the best approach to dealing with an enclave like this that will fight back in a big way. The bulk of the book, however, takes place four weeks earlier with a focus on Isaac and his nephew James. Isaac’s heading into the woods to do some exploring to figure out defensive things to do to prepare for the future, which makes sense considering how his tour in Afghanistan introduced to him the way that that government operates. While Briggs Land isn’t a sovereign nation they know that they’ll be treated like the governments treats small nations in how they bully and overwhelm.
What complicates events for Isaac and James is that while out and about exploring the territory that they’re connected to, places that their great-grandparents helped to build at one time or explore at others, they find that a pair of backpackers have come through the area having gotten off course from the trail they were on the national park they thought they were in. This is a familiar story idea to be sure and it plays well in this incidence because of the way that Isaac is wary of what problems their stumbling in here could produce combined with James being so easily set off and near frantic. While Isaac doesn’t exactly do anything smart here since he essentially kidnaps them and puts them someplace quiet and safe, the bigger problem I suspect is that James has a hold of their phone and is now getting exposed to the outside world in a new and unfiltered and unmonitored way…
In Summary:
Briggs Land: Lone Wolves hits a lot of good stuff in a small way here and is set to build into an interesting arc that will likely tie into a lot of what went on in the first series as well. Putting some focus on Isaac is welcome but also on James with the ways he can be drawn into things. Brian Wood has certainly earned trust on the first series and past works to tell a solid tale over the run of a book and I have no doubt of that here. My introduction to Mack Chater in the first series means that I’ll likely get into anything he does that’s of this kind of grounded variety but it also makes me curious to see what else he’s done that’s outside of it. That said, I’m super glad to see him back on this run of the book and can’t wait to see what else he’s going to introduce us to through his designs as the story ramps up in some very big ways.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: June 14th, 2017
MSRP: $3.99
