From bad to worse.
Creative Staff:
Story: Inaki Miranda, Roy Miranda
Art: Inaki Miranda
Colors: Eva de la Cruz
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
What They Say:
The encounter with the Bengal Ripper puts the group’s survival to the test. Their lives now rest on Simon’s shoulders, but in the Broken Lands every wrong step comes with a consequence.
Tala and Hototo, now joined by their new friends, Humbo and Alice, find themselves dragged onto a new and unsafe path. Reaching the train to Mother Megalopolis Nine is becoming an uncertain milestone.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The opening installment of We Live definitely hit several sweet spots for me. I really liked the concept where we’re trying to get a group of people offworld as one of the last groups to be able to do so. Inaki and Roy Miranda put together an interesting world that we saw pieces of through unexpected eyes and started barreling us through it. The journey aspect with such a diverse group of characters is a standard story technique but combining that with Inaki’s artwork and the color design from Eva de la Cruz and it really just hit the ground running in a really great way. It’s detailed, strikingly beautiful, and has you wanting to see even more of this world.
With the group having lost their transportation and hoofing it through the jungle on their own, they got stopped by a really fascinating creature called a Bengal Ripper the last time around. The guide was doing his best here to ease it down and send it on its own way, but one of the reactionary types opted to just kill it outright. This may make sense on a basic level but when you don’t know the truth of the creature… It hunts in packs and when its blood hits the air it draws the rest of them in on the hunt. And with the blood all over the group, they’re basically giant targets for upwards of thirty other ones that would be within a hundred miles radius. It’s a great moment for really filling us in on how dangerous this world has become and why they really have to hustle even more than they were before. One mistake can cost so much.
The journey dominates a lot of this issue as well and it’s interesting to see some of the creatures out there and the ruins that they come across. And a way to try and remove the scent of the bengal ripper as well. Unfortunately, we see that the dangers of the world are not stopping and our group gets whittled down even more. But we also get some downtime as they try to cope with the situation and that provides some minor flashback for Humbo and Alice with what they went through some time ago, adding a nice contrast and complement to Tala and Hototo’s time so far as well as the focus. It’s easy to see why Humbo isn’t keen on leaving this world with the bond that they have with Alice and all that they’ve gone through and that’s going to find its balance due soon going by the way this series runs.
In Summary:
We Live is moving at its own pace that works well for immersing us into the world even more. I really love the visuals of the whole thing from top to bottom as it feels like everything has meaning behind it and that it could be dug into in some really neat ways. I’m less connected to the characters overall since we’re focusing on the kids and they’re not exactly my cup of tea but seeing the world through their eyes and how they’re trying to survive is really well done. The bit of backstory we get on Humbo and Alice adds some new nuance to things and I’m excited to see where things go next with this as they push further ahead toward their destination.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: November 18th, 2020
MSRP: $3.99