The book takes a lend of some popular tropes; firstly there are King Richard and Robin Hood overtures, a touch of Into the Badlands and a smidge of Death’s Head. The place is ran by the Tyrant of Minturn, who exacts a heavy price of his populace. His chief whip in keeping the peace is the Headtaker, who wields the Wailing Blade. Out to fight this tyranny are the Windcleavers who terrorise the trade routes between the various towns. Sounds familiar? After a battle in which the leader of the outlaw loses his father an ambitious plan is formed to relieve the Headtaker from his prized possession.
Rich Douek is the writer responsible for all the blade swinging, massacre and mayhem and whilst the idea behind the book isn’t particular new, Douek does well to get the reader to care about what is going on. As this is the first issue you do have to take what you are given as gospel, but I am sure that there are more surprises in store. Also, Douek does well not getting caught up in the whole “remaking the wheel” that can come with new worlds, preferring to show rather than tell, at least for the most part. The dialogue for the book works well. The leader of the group is all bluster, until a personal lose emboldens him even further; the rest of his gang are pretty standard to be fair.
The art is provided by Joe Mulvey who mashes a cartoon style; over bulging muscles and caricature, in a way that somehow detracts from the level of gore in the book. I have nothing against this of course, but it is an odd juxtaposition; maybe there is humour in tyranny? Still, the panels work well, action moves through the page and my only real constructive comment would be that whilst father and son do need to have a resemblance, their action scenes does seems a little chaotic and takes a couple of readings to see the bigger picture. Mulvey has a heavy ink style which is just as well as this world is far from barren. Colorists Chris Sotomayor and Jules Rivera display an abundance of vibrancy to Old Earth. Finally, lettering guru, Taylor Esposito ensures that the book has a professional finish.
With Fairlady from Image comics kind of treading the same settings, it seems that now is the winter of broken worlds. Upon further review, the two books are so dramistically (my word, I made it up!) different in tone, this being somewhat more instant whereas Fairlady is definitely working on a larger plan, that should you have a hankering for reduced civilisations, you would be best serves trying both flavours.
For those interested in checking out the book, please click here to head over to Kickstarter.Â
WAILING BLADE #1 will also be available in comic shops worldwide on 5/29/19 with GOLD & SILVER Foil Stamped Covers!
Writing – 4 Stars
Art – 3.5 Stars
Colors -3.5 Stars
[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Written by; Rick Douek
Art by; Joe Mulvey
Colors by; Chris Sotomayor & Jules Rivera
Letters by; Taylor Esposito
Published by; Comix Tribe
Author Profile
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I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow
Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network
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