Mayhem!
Creative Staff:
Story: Cullen Bunn
Art: Juan Doe
Letterer: Ryane Hill
What They Say:
Shrae’s Ark is in turmoil. What more would you expect upon a vessel populated by the worst monsters in all of creation. Now, however, the Ark has attracted the attention of powerful forces—vengeful angelic forces serving the will of the Lord.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Dark Ark has been a pretty intriguing book as it moved along and I really enjoyed what came before. Cullen Bunn has put together a pretty good concept to work with here, one that has me wanting to follow it through to all sorts of potential ending points that can be explored as I can really see it being a kind of massive generational story in some ways. What’s helped a lot is that Juan Doe is a fantastic artist and he brings this mythological side to life in such an engaging way with the designs of the characters and color work that it just gives it an incredible weight. It’s rich and raw, filled with detail and emotion everywhere and even when it’s mostly just action it resonates very well.
The arrival of the vampires that Nex called upon in his mutiny after the murder has certainly thrown the ark into chaos. They’re everywhere on deck and that makes for a real challenge for Shrae to try and hold off while looking to ease things with Nex so the journey can continue. Nex is in that position of power and is playing it well but it’s no surprise that Shrae has something planned for this that causes it all to turn into a larger mess than planned with his blood mingling with the rain. It’s not a fight without consequences as we see how Shrae takes a real hit by this and has to stand tall so nobody thinks he’s being weakened but we also see how he metes out a really tough punishment for Nex by the end that almost borders on cruelty. But in context to what had happened on the ark it’s entirely justifiable.
His pushback against Nex and the vampires leads to them storming inside the ark and cause all manner of trouble there as they kill and feed. Some of it is brutal, such as Selah and her unborn being bitten that will cause more problems if things follow a traditional route, but also some of those in the same position as Janris get taken down while others attempt to fight back. It’s Kruul that changes the game as he defends Janris but it reinforces how he was aligned with Nex, though more that Nex had taken advantage of his nature to ensure his compliance. There’s a shift in the alliances that exist within the ark as this progresses and the fallout hits that’s going to be intriguing to see as it goes forward. The journey is one that was never going to be easy but it seems to be getting worse faster than one might expect.
In Summary:
Dark Ark is the kind of series that I can just see how expansive and intriguing it could be. I can easily envision dozens of issues just in this time period before it shifts forward over the millennia into something even more based on the characters here. Cullen Bunn is definitely enjoying this particular snapshot in time with what’s going on and it leaves me wanting much more of it and the bigger picture. And it definitely has me wanting to see Juan Doe explore more of it as this is just massively well done on his part to give it such a rich and intriguing look with its designs and colors. I can’t get enough of it and hope for some really slick hardcover glossy works some day.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: December 20th, 2017
MSRP: $3.99
