A desperate and personal mission in a world gone all wrong.
Creative Staff:
Story: Steve Orlando
Art: Matthew Dow Smith
Colors: Lauren Affe
Letterer: Thomas Mauer
What They Say:
Thrice-Nine took Sasha’s brother, and it took Maria’s heart.
Plagued by the ramifications of a techno-magic world now thirty years gone, Thrice-Nine is a dirty folklore world that limps along, degenerating into a place filled with paranoia and poison. Sasha Vasnetsov thought he’d escaped all that, but when news comes that his younger brother has been kidnapped by the secret police, he finds himself dragged back into the madness with a simple goal—to find his brother.
But Sasha is going to need help to do this, and he enlists Maria Kamenaya, a former warrior with hundreds of enemy kills to her name, who was betrayed by the very country she served. This quest is how they get both of those things back, in the lawless land of decapitated states…the land of DEAD KINGS.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
There are so many things that can catch your interest when it comes to a first issue. I’ve been intrigued by most of what AfterShock Comics produces but there are pieces beyond that. Steve Orlando has put together some weird and fun books over the last few years that’ll draw me into anything new. A cover like this book has definitely gets me interested in seeing what’s inside as it’s very distinctive. I’ve also enjoyed Matthew Dow Smith’s artwork on a few other books recently and wanted to see him on something that was a from the ground up approach to the characters and world design as opposed to playing in someone else’s playground and he definitely achieves that here as it’s very distinctive and sets such a spot on mood for it all.
The premise here is one that’s nicely layered as we see the birth of twins amid a time when giant machines strode the earth in combat. Decades later, those brothers are now separated with one of them being imprisoned while the other now desperately searches for him at the behest of their mother, now aged fifty. Sasha has spent a lot of time over the last several months going through seedy bars and taverns looking for Stone Mary, a woman of a lot of skill and ability that will give him the edge he needs to break out his brother from Thrice-Nine. There’s some interesting moments as we see him getting a meal for a homeless veteran on the street and sharing his story in the bar while only weaving a tale that was told by others. His quest to find Mary has had him figure out the right tale to tell in order to make an in with the locals, though this group has little patience for it since it’s the actual Mary that’s there.
While this is a fairly standard setup in a lot of ways it’s the trappings that are both intriguing and frustrating. The bit of the techno-magic war from decades before that we see definitely make me want to see more of it, especially the scale of it all. Sasha’s tale is one that’s interesting as well, particularly as we start with his and his brother’s birth and move forward from there with hints of just how screwed up this world seems. Matthew Dow Smith’s artwork is what really makes all of this so engaging as it’s wonderfully put together to create a rough and lived-in world that doesn’t look the least bit friendly. And that’s made all the more powerful though Lauren Affe’s color work that leans into that oppressive idea, giving it a richness that unsettles at times. The story is working with the edges here but the artwork really makes it feel like it’s been going on for some time and we’re just getting our first taste of it, understanding that there’s a whole lot more.
In Summary:
Dead Kings is the kind of book that I think is going to reveal itself over the course of the run and will be a struggle in some ways to connect with because of it. I’ve had similar with some of Orlando’s other works and on the original side the payoff is definitely there. What’s helping with this one is the great artwork that has me really digging what the team is doing. The core story that’s at play here is fairly straightforward and accessible but the trappings and the path that Orlando uses is complex and only partially presented, making it one that you have to put a bit of work in on and some patience for more of it to be revealed. And there’s a whole lot here that looks to justify all of it and make the effort.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: October 17th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
