The mysteries deepen and our cast becomes more intriguing.
Creative Staff:
Story: Ram V
Art: Evan Cagle
Colors: Dave Stewart
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar
What They Say:
Still recovering from the aftermath of piloting an experimental Iron King in combat for the first time, all-star pilot Anita Marr digs to uncover what happened when the massive mech malfunctioned mid-fight against a ferocious Tetza.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
It’ll be easy to throw a lot of familiar references for this series from Godzilla to Pacific Rim to Neon Genesis Evangelion and you can see the threads within them that have carried forward for decades, being reinterpreted and played with by new creative people. This series comes from writer Ram V, whom I’ve read a few things from before and enjoyed, and artist Evan Cagle with Dave Stewart coloring it. It’s my first experience with Cagle’s artwork and it’s a strong component here, especially with the talent of Stewart on it, as there’s a great sense of detail and depth to it all and a cohesive feeling that makes it all come together beautifully. There’s a good sense of power to what’s happening and the players involved but the best moments for me are seeing the “manly” men of the book and still having very effeminate characters like Anita that take on some more manga-like qualities but remain very much in tune with everything else.
With so much information and action in the first issue, the second installment does slow down some but continues to throw a lot of things at us after the fallout of the fight in the new Iron King. Most interesting to me is seeing Anita with her daughter who has contracted some kind of disease that’s killing her small body. It’s believed to have come from the Tzetza and their arrival in this world and is still incurable. It’s a heartbreaking piece, especially as her boss is one that tries to use it as a way to connect with her in pursuit of finding out what happened in the Iron King the day before when she basically shut down for four minutes. There’s some good tension here between the two and the balance of his desire for the corporate side to succeed and her being on the front line yet having real power because of the celebrity of it all. Mixing that in with the way that he’s framed the incident as being for dramatic effect for the public puts the two of them in a really neat kind of dance.
There are a lot of good moments throughout this, such as Anita being at the Pit and interacting with Catarina over what happened, but the real meat is when Catarina reveals what makes this Iron King so different. It’s no surprise based on other works I’ve read and seen that the company has utilized the minds of fallen fighters in order to create this new operating system and that when Anita was in there piloting she ended up dealing with a lot of “mental creep” from the man, Takeda, as she saw his fight and parts of his life. There’s a balance here in how much they’re revealing to each other because of the sensitivity and confidentiality of all, but Anita is able to suss out enough and then get a lot more details from the linguist that’s part of this operation. He wants raw data on what’s going on and is willing to give her private access to the OS to do so. And that’s what starts to tease more of Takeda’s life and sets what could be a really engaging dynamic depending on the direction taken with it going forward.
In Summary:
Dawnrunner is the kind of property that asn a whole, or with the arc, it’s going to rate much higher than the single issues. It’s working familiar things but the execution is so strong that it helps to elevate it with its style, detail, and the nature of the characters. It’s playing “mature” because nobody is overreacting or being dramatic but they’re being effective and clear in a way that’s great to read because they feel more like real people. I’m not surprised by the details of the brain/OS thing as that’s long been a bit in this particular genre but it’s executed well and getting that on top of learning more about Anita and this world just delivers a fantastic experience that has me eager for more. Very recommended.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: April 24th, 2024
MSRP: $4.99
