A new evil walks the earth.
Creative Staff:
Story: Frank Tieri
Art: Oleg Okunev
Colors: Rob Schwager
Letterer: Marshall Dillon
What They Say:
It’s the late 14th Century, and a Great Pestilence—the “Black Death”— is sweeping across Europe, killing over 100 million people. BUT, what if history as we know it was a lie? What if, in reality, this was no straightforward plague, but the FIRST non-recorded Zombie Infestation of man? Ex-Crusader Roderick Helms and his fellow “black ops” agents the Church, Fiat Lux, must seek out the cause of this undead outbreak and vanquish it before mankind ceases to exist!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
One of the things I’ve been digging with AfterShock are some of the creative pairings that come up as I get some that I don’t know about. I’ve read a lot of Frank Tieri’s works over the last few years and dig his original material as there’s a fun and funkiness about it that just feels authentic. This time, he’s paired up with Russian-born artist Oleg Okunev and it’s my first exposure to his work. With this taking place back in the day with a medievil tone about it, he captures the weariness and rawness of the time well and that’s made even stronger by Rob Schwagers color work as it’s earthy in all the right ways. My only problem, and it’s more me than anything else, is Marshal Dillon’s lettering as we get “olde style” pieces for some of the narration and exposition, not the dialogue, and I just find that font near unreadable in a lot of ways. It’s stylish and appropriate but it just slows down my enjoyment of it.
Taking place in 1347, we’re given a standard structure where it opens in talking about how Roderick and his team, the assassin’s group of the Church, are dealing with the results of their actions that they believe are in the greater good even if it means their own demise and their powerful reputation ruined. Where the bulk of it takes place is a few weeks prior where we see them making their way into a castle that’s occupied by Sir Archibald. Archibald is the kind of classic winner of the period in that it’s ale and whores with his victory conquest, though it’s one where he claimed his victory of this castle in the name of the Church when it was really in his own name. That has Roderick and his merry band there to put an end to it before the Church and its army show up to clean up everything and that makes for a pretty fun little adventure as we get a good handle on the main cast, even if just briefly, before it begins to shuffle off toward the real adventure.
What the book wants to focus on is the early days of the Black Death plague but with the real truth about it in that it was zombies, or the undead of some sort. That has the group coming across one on their journey and discovering their larger mission but not before a potential infection point and some decent character material. I know, I know. Zombies. Why did it have to be zombies. I’m not against the concept in the slightest as it’s the execution that can make it work even in a crowded field of zombie tales this past decade. Within this setting it certainly makes sense and it gives Roderick and his crew a very difficult mission to deal with as the countryside is slowly being littered with more of the undead. This is just their first brush with it and we get only so much here but it’s definitely an intriguing start.
In Summary:
With Frank Tieri at the helm of the story and some pretty great artwork from Oleg Okunev, there’s a lot to like with this series. We don’t get many properties that really deal with this period and it is one that’s open to a lot of interpretation and twists to tell some fun stories that tweak history in new directions. It’s not a slow start per se but a familiar start – and I’m grateful for that. So many books just drop you in the middle without enough context, insisting that the hook must be at the start and dominate the opener, that something a bit more traditional like this is refreshing. It’s a very well put together book that can go in a lot of ways depending on how long it’ll ultimately run, but it should serve up some great swords and zombie material that could expand in some twisty ways if I know Tieri’s works.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: May 3rd, 2017
MSRP: $3.99
