A new land… but is it empty?
Creative Staff:
Story: Cullen Bunn
Art: Juan Doe
Letterer: Ryane Hill
What They Say:
Shrae struggles to maintain order among the beasts. Now that they do not rely on the sorcerer for survival, many of the monsters have designs on killing Shrae and his family. A shocking discovery may bond the monsters together once more. Somehow, they are not the first creatures to set foot on the island.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Much as I had hoped, finding land feels like it’s just the start of the real story of Dark Ark. I’ve talked before about how this story could work down the ages to the present and further with interesting plot threads and Cullen Bunn is definitely looking to explore a lot of things with it. This issue shows us a new change in the dynamic that’s exciting and we get more beautiful Juan Doe artwork. There are so many great panels and pages here, along with beautiful covers from throughout the series, that I’m just loving every instance of it. It’s the kind of project where I want to see AfterShock put out a high-quality coffee table hardcover of the covers and other key pieces within to show off. It’s just deserving of the best.
Finding land has the monsters making their way out to celebrate the night, and rightly so after what they’ve experienced. Seeing how they deal with it in various cases is exciting, with the wolves thrilled by the moon being so clear and visible, the stars for others, and just having firmness underfoot once again. But there’s tension as well as Shrae knows that the humans he brought with him are basically livestock – even if the monsters are waiting to see if Noah will land here too. The deals struck are only so good and even Shrae’s bargain for his family feels limited as only his wife might survive after what happened to corrupt her. The back and forth between Shrae and Nex is delightfully fun to watch unfold because of all of this.
But, the new world is not empty. There are towering humanoid creatures that seem to exist here that are wearing deer-like facial masks. They’re watching and learning at first while the monsters try to figure out where to get their meal and as the humans explore a bit, but it really is only so long before they go all in. Who they are, what they are, what they want is all to be discovered as they kill a number of the monsters and capture others – Shrae included. This shifts things in an interesting light, especially as he ends up with Nex during the capture phase of it all. There is, as Kruul says, purpose to what these strangers did in how they attacked and it’s what’s going to be exciting to watch as a motley group has to come together to find those that were captured.
In Summary:
Dark Ark continues to be one of my most anticipated books every month and this issue is no exception. I love the interplay between everyone at this point and the mystery of who these new arrivals are – though to be fair, this is apparently their land and Shrae and the monsters are the true invaders. There are a lot of things at play here and the various pieces of it with the humans and their interactions along with the kinds of odd alliances struck with some monsters like Kruul sets up a lot of possibilties. Cullen Bunn delivers wonderfully here and Juan Do again puts to page some of the best looking comic art I see every month.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: January 16th, 2019
MSRP: $3.99
