Publisher: Image Comics
Story: Rob Liefeld
Art: Matt Horak
Released: 3rd June 2015

The Covenant is a religious themed comic book from writer Rob Liefeld and new artist Matt Horak. The comic’s main focus is on the Ark of the Covenant, a devastating weapon that when activated, can wipe out whole armies. Long before Harrison Ford got anywhere near it, the Ark was stolen from the Israelites by The Philistines. Is everyone following so far? Jolly good.

The Philistine army, led by General Thane, look to crush the Israelites and drive them out of the surrounding territories, but the only way to do this is to steal their mythical weapon. The Israelites are all like “Yeah? We have the power of God on our side suckers!”, and the Philistines, who are foragers of steel and weaponry, sacrifice virgins to a snake God, have enslaved giants, are all like “Yoink! We have your magic box, and swords, and soldiers, and giants. Come and get it”. A young Israelite priest, Samuel, assembles a group of mercenaries that go out to do just that.

Sounds exciting, right? Not really. Well, it wasn’t for me anyway. This type of ‘swords and sandals’ comic is just not my bag. I don’t particularly enjoy it but that is my own personal preference. This is not a bad comic. It’s not! You can totally see where Liefeld is going with the story, and I suspect that in the next few issues the action will really pick up. The art is well done for first timer in Horak, although I felt that in some panels it falls a bit short. Overall it fitted the style of the story really well, and I expect his confidence and style to grow with the comic.

The Covenant, for me, is a bit Marmite: you will either love it or you will hate it. If you are a fan of biblical tales and a bit of ‘sword and sandals’ action then this is definitely the comic for you. If not then you should still give it a go. You never know. God does work in mysterious ways..

Rating: 3/5.

The writer of this piece was: Cat McGlinn
Cat Tweets from @LibraryCat10.