When treasure is involved … NEVER trust pirates!
Creative Staff:
Writer: Joe Brusha
Artwork: Sergio Ariño
Colors: Dijjo Lima
Letters: Kurt Hathaway
What They Say:
Out of options and facing certain death, Captain Sable and her crew are forced into an uneasy alliance with their deadliest rival … the evil pirate Captain Blood! Blood agrees to help keep them alive that is, until they can lead him to the most valuable treasure in the galaxy.
Content (please note that portions of review may contain spoilers):
Once again Blake leads Sable and her crew to another dead in their search for the Korvarian fuel cells, but this time it ends in a deadly ambush. As she watches her men cut down by blaster fire, everyone rushes in panic to find cover from the attackers, with Mr. Crumb acknowledging what all want to do – throw this scoundrel to the enemy so they can escape. While it is tempting, this rogue is still the only one who knows where the treasure is, but the situation gets worse once they see who is firing … Captain Reaver from the Alpha Corporation. However even as he thinks he has the upper hand, another player makes an explosive entrance, and it is someone you do not want to mess with – Captain Blood.
As the cyborg and his men take advantage and slaughter corporation scum, Reaver escapes with prisoners in tow, leaving the Captain and Blake behind. Now with little choice since Alpha took the Fury, Sable is forced to become Blood’s guest upon his ship the Fiend, under careful supervision. After a little persuasion, their host coaxes the next location on the treasure hunt out of Blake, but they soon find Oasis a desolate waste, destroyed by the Corporation. With the lone pirate holdout now destroyed, Blood sees no other option for revenge than to form alliance with his pirate brethren, even if the others are not trusting of this notorious villain. However with no ship and therefore not many options to find the fuel cells, this may be their only way to beat Alpha Corporation … if they make it on time.
In Summary:
Now supposedly with all of the players fully introduced, writer Joe Brusha can start creating a narrative which begins to make sense, right? However with so many characters taking the stage at once, at times the story can become confusing with events switching between factions. While it is understandable so many would be after this treasure since it was originally owned by Alpha Corporation, we readers still have no idea why it is valuable, details having been conveniently glanced over. True we can infer worth due to so many groups willing to kill, sabotage, betray and make alliances for these fuel cells, but at the same time, when the general audience for this book think of pirates and treasure, we assume it would be gold, jewels or something more monetarily tangible. But now with all of the brigands on one side and the Corporation on the other, it still is as murky as the beginning in trying to figure out why they want these items. Although some may not care what they are after and more interested in the adventure, there is still a lack of information on the whole and hopefully this will be remedied before the end.
Now that we are nearing the end of the tale, with tension spiking up, Sergio Ariño’s uniquely intense and dramatically beautiful illustrations have to match the progression of the story and he does so with depictions of breathtaking action. Every panel smoothly transitions within the complexity of the narrative, never allowing the reader to take a breath, just like any great Hollywood blockbuster. However what magnifies the ambiance of this space opera is colorist Dijjo Lima’s striking array of overly dramatic tones, illuminating the pages with vibrancy on par to the artwork. This combination of amazing talents allows the reader to become lost within the cinematography of this title, allowing us to stare in awe from the beauty of Sable to the cruelty of Reaver and Blood, each namesake telling its own tale, interjected by a frightening dance of explosions and the terror of what awaits us in the unknown.
The Black Sable is finally solidifying into a tale of epic consequences, but if we knew more of how this tale came to be, the narrative would congeal into a more meaningful story. As of now, all the reader knows is a crude foundation of how the characters came together and what they all want, not the essential reason of why they want the treasure. We can speculate, conjecture or hypothesize but without any concrete evidence on value, all we can conclude is this might be a fool’s errand … but then again, pirates have never been known to make the wisest of choices.
Grade: B+
Rating: T (Teen)
Released By: Zenescope
Release Date: February 14, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
