Writer: Victor Gischler
Artist: Juan Ferreyra

This series is a bit of a mixed bag for me. On the one hand, the story is a little uneven, in that the majority of the character development to this point seems to have been used for the ‘bad guys’, with the unfortunate side-effect that I struggle to find myself really caring much about the heroes and their plight. In fact, the highlight of the story so far has been Meredith, the wife of main villain Cassian, and she absolutely steals this issue in every way imaginable.

As the heroes continue to try and escape the clutches of the army of killers and mercenaries trying to collect the bounty on their heads, I can’t help but find myself more interested in the attackers than the victims. The three daughters basically just seem to be there for eye candy and quips, and main protagonist(?) Barnabus Black is a fairly one-dimensional creation, at least for the time being.

These niggles aside, the story is still solid enough, but the real selling point to this series – for me, at least – is the absolutely stunning artwork of Ferreyra. Whether it’s haunting imagery, brutal violence or waves upon waves of zombie ninjas (yeah, you heard me), he absolutely excels here, following up on his stellar work on ‘Colder’ with yet more gruesome visuals that will linger in your memory for a long, long time.

This title has a great deal of potential, but doesn’t seem to have quite found its feet yet. Still, it’s undoubtedly beautiful to look at, and with a little more focus and development of the ‘heroes’ in the issues to come, it could end up finishing in grand style.

Rating: 7.5/10.

The writer of this piece was: Craig Neilson (aka Ceej)
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