Review – The Sacrificers #1 (Image Comics)

Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Rick Remender
Artwork: Max Fiumara
Colourist: Dave McCaig
Release Date: 2nd August 2023

A new Rick Remender comic is always cause for celebration round these parts. Particularly when, on this occasion, he is joined by artist extraordinaire Max Fiumara. Arriving with no shortage of fanfare from Image Comics, The Sacrificers is a dark science fiction series set in a world where an uneasy peace and tranquility is maintained by the unimaginably cruel price of one child per household.

This first issue spends its time introducing us to one such family and the son who is expected to give up everything for the people he loves. Treated like an animal, beaten and forced to live in a barn – presumably in an attempt to make the inevitable departure less painful – it’s almost impossible not to become invested in the young man’s plight, and Remender does a great job of using this extreme example to underscore the silent horror lying beneath the surface of this otherwise happy world.

The rest of the book takes us somewhere altogether unexpected, allowing Remender to showcase his unconventional sci-fi genius as we meet Soluna, a young girl who appears to be the daughter of some sort of deity; a hulking, flame-haired goliath named Rokos who, it seems, powers the very sun itself. Soluna’s family situation is fairly complicated as well, albeit a little less sacrifice-y, and these pages help to show us just how wildly ambitious the scope of this new series is. As if we expected anything less from this creative team.

Bringing this tale to life is Fiumara, who leans into the wild excess of the story with some truly inspired character designs and a wonderful visual flair throughout. He works seamlessly alongside colourist Dave McCaig, the pair ebbing and flowing from the modest farmhouse lives of our sacrificial son to the disorienting palace of Soluna, her father and his mistress Xia. It’s a fantastic looking book as you might expect, and each and every glimpse we’re given at the wider world – including the menacing “harvesters” who arrive at the end of the issue to make their collection – helps to draw the reader deeper and deeper into what promises to be one hell of a series.

With Remender and Fiumara at the helm, this series has the potential to cement itself alongside the Sagas and Black Sciences of this world in terms of A+ science fiction comics. With a few thinly-veiled allusions of what’s still to come in the post-comic notes, this is a truly fantastic start to a new series that I cannot recommend highly enough.

Rating: 4.5/5.

[PREVIEW ARTWORK – CLICK TO ENLARGE]