Mirror’s Edge is one of my favorite games of the last generation despite mediocre reviews. The gameplay and visuals were amazing, and the premise had a lot of potential, but there wasn’t much of a story and the character was one-dimensional. The comic tries to alleviate that by delving deeper into Faith’s backstory.
The comic actually takes quite a while to pick up as the first two issues are complete filler. I almost gave up after the first issue had nothing going for it. It’s not until the last 3 issues that the story picks up, but it becomes a little predictable and continues to remain slow going.
We are learning about Faith’s personal childhood and how she grew up in the city and what her role as a runner is all about. At the end of the series, it all makes sense and becomes clear, and I felt more connected to Faith, but it takes forever to get to the point. I also didn’t like the art style here as it was blocky, void of detail, and barely captured the beauty of the game.
Overall, if you’re a huge Mirror’s Edge fan then read the series. It’s short, and the only thing we’ll get to really give us more story on this game.
Some video game comics are a bit iffy. The Fall is a whole new storyline set in Russia, and there’s no Desmond Miles this time around. Daniel Cross ends up losing his memory, he can also see visions of his ancestors from the late 1800s. Nikolai Orelov is tasked with killing the Tsar of Russia and getting the Golden Staff. In the present Daniel gets taken away to a secret Assassin camp and finds out his true identity.
Daniel himself is a raging drug addict and alcoholic. He has a court order to take psych meds but won’t do it. I loved how they introduced him, but he’s not a very memorable character. The comic series wasn’t long enough to allow this. During the first issue, you are just introduced to everyone and what their common goal is. During the second issue, Daniel finds out who he truly is and why he has these visions. It all comes to an end during the third issue when you find out the major plot twist and how shocking it is.
There is a special edition 4th issue that shows several years later where Daniel has cleaned up and finally meets the Mentor that he has searched for 2 years. There’s another shocking twist at the end, and without this final issue, the other three don’t seem so great. The art is really nice and the series is pretty gory and bloody. There’s a decent amount of fight scenes and the art holds true to the game. I just wish it were longer so we can get to know these characters more; there’s a lot that could have been done.
One thing that video game comics tend to have is a lack of intelligent dialogue. The Fall has great writing and there’s actually reading to be done rather than a sentence or two on each page. Fans will enjoy The Fall and the separate storyline is a welcome change. I just wish it were longer.
I went into this not expecting much. I was halfway through the first issue when it suddenly grabbed my attention. This series plays out — and could be translated to — a full-on game. The Gods (Hades, Ares, Hermes, Poseidon, Helios) are bored and make a wager. They find the strongest clans in the world and make something disastrous happen. The Barbarian King’s father is stricken with illness, a female clan suffers starvation, and Kratos’s newborn child with Lysandra, Calliope, is born with a deformity. The Spartan law is that an ugly baby is thrown out at sea. Lysandra’s midwife tells them a tale about the Ambrosia of Asclepius that can give eternal life and bring back the dead. They both beg the Spartan King to let Kratos bring back this Ambrosia for the King himself and a sip for his baby.
That’s one freaking awesome story. That is a premise to a whole new God of War game. As the series advances the Gods start cheating because Kratos is obviously winning. He slays large strange beasts, avoids natural disasters, and has the King’s army following him. The series does an excellent job of showing the hot-headedness of Kratos and his selfishness. The Spartan general gives him a lecture on this, and we also get some insight into the Spartan ways and how cruel they were. Several times Kratos almost becomes defeated, but we all know the ending here.
The art was a bit disappointing. It’s very murky and washed out with black. There’s some realism here, but it doesn’t exactly fit the game’s art style. Sometimes I liked it, sometimes I didn’t. There were a few mistakes like when he had a flashback to his childhood. Kratos is drawn with ashy skin and red markings, but he didn’t get that until after he slew his family. In Ghost of Sparta, Kratos is seen with normal skin as a kid, so there were some screw-ups with the lore here. This series was made towards the tale-end of WildStorm Comics’ life, issue 6 was done by DC Comics after they absorbed WildStorm. At least the comic is gory and there’s a lot of violence like in the game. While the art may be iffy, it does have an excellent atmosphere of darkness and constant betrayal.
It’s a short series but it does the game justice. If you love God of War these six issues should be in your comic collection. The story is so great that it can stand as a standalone game.
I didn’t really have high hopes for this comic series. Comics are a good avenue for video games because you get a new story along with visuals. The first mini-series wasn’t all that great. The art was good, but the story was very average and just felt like a piece of a level from the game. There were a couple of comics after that that focused on Jace which is a character I didn’t really like. These issues felt pointless and I feel sorry for anyone who wasted $4 on them. The second mini-series — Barren — was excellent with fantastic art and an awesome story. It also brought out a darker side to the franchise that wasn’t seen in the games. Using a run-down facility to capture and rape girls to create babies to keep humanity running. Delta Squad goes in and tries to save them, but there is a constant love/hate thing going on and it was very gripping.
After this, the series went into some one-offs with Jace again and I didn’t like them. The third and final mini-series was Dirty Little Secrets which led up to the ending of Gears of War 3. Karen Traviss wrote the comic this time around except the artwork was terrible. It was washed out and the character design was inconsistent with the whole series. There were some character tie-ins to the Gears novels, so anyone who’s read those will finally get to see what these characters look like such as Trescu, Mathieson, and a few other Garasnaya people. The story was pretty gripping and it got into the heads of Adam Fenix, Chairman Prescott, and Hoffman. Of course, by now everyone knows how Gears ends, but this is still a great insight.
Interestingly, WildStorm dropped the series shortly after the Barren mini-series and DC Comics picked it up. I don’t know if it wasn’t profitable anymore — I highly doubt the comic series sold very well. After the switch to DC, the artwork went down the wayside yet the stories were a little better. Seeing as the series only ran for 24 issues (2 years) I’m guessing after Gears of War 3 they didn’t expect it to sell. It went on for quite a while as most video game comics are only one mini-series long. If you are a hardcore Gears of War fan I recommend at least picking up the last two mini-series. The series went through some ups and downs, but it was solid for a franchise that mainly focused on shooting things.
While Hollow was a huge disappointment and felt completely unnecessary the writers and artists at WildStorm seem to have gotten the hang of the series. Barren is full of twists and exciting new characters, and surprisingly, a bunch of female ones. Delta Squad gets a new female Sargeant in their squad, Alex, and they are sent to a destroyed city called Jilane to find any survivors. The distress beacon was somehow activated there, but it’s actually a plant where they capture and rape women to reproduce. This is a very dark series and even dark for Gears of War. Things like rape and torture usually aren’t talked about in the games outside of the Locust.
For some reason, they are still sticking with Jace as the main character. Nobody likes him, he’s boring and uninteresting yet he’s still here. There’s even a sex scene in the series with Jace and one of the female survivors. It’s very shocking but a good move for the series of comics. Throughout the 5 part series, Liam Sharp’s art brings the story to life and it feels like they have the series under their belt. There’s a lot of action and suspense, and each comic ends on a cliffhanger, but thankfully I didn’t have to wait until the next month to read what happens next. Cliffhangers are important in comics because it keeps the reader coming back every month.
Barren just really shows the darkest part of humanity and how the emergence of Locust affected everyone. It also shows the softer more humane side of the COG and Delta Squad. They save children and women, but it also shows that the best among us will sacrifice themselves to save the masses. This comic series is just rock solid and I hope this continues further into the 24-part Gears of War comic run. If you don’t want to read them all just get #9-14 and enjoy beautiful artwork, solid writing, and tense action.
While I absolutely love games and novels, I’m very cautious about comics. Comics are short and most comic stories are pretty shallow and seem too short to be fleshed out. What I love about comics is the art, and Hollow looks amazing. It captures the gore and violence of the games as well as the post-apocalyptic setting. However, it follows Jace who is one of the worst characters in the series. Jace is just average, he isn’t memorable like Delta Squad at all. Of course, you follow Marcus Fenix, as well as a new guy named Barrick. I wasn’t too keen on him either. He’s a roughed-up redneck who smokes a lot and has Rust Lung. A new Gear named Gil pops up for a couple issues as he went through boot camp with Jace. Cole and Baird make a short appearance on one issue, but that’s it.
Delta Squad (Dom and Marcus) are out looking for surviving Gears through the first few issues. Marcus and Dom are trying to get to Montevado to find survivors after the Lightmass bombing in Timgad and the sinking of Jacinto (Hollow takes place after Gears of War 2). On their way, they find a stranded camp called “Fucked”…nice name. Jace has flashbacks during firefights of when he was trapped in his home during E-Day and how he was saved. I just can’t get into Jace, not even in the games. He’s a very average character and very boring. I honestly just wanted more of Delta Squad.
They find a little girl named Lily in “Fucked” and Jace promises to find her mother and they take her along. I found this a bit odd because Delta Squad knows they can’t do that. Taking a little girl is too risky and can get them all killed. They should have left her in “Fucked” and come back for her later or something. Of course, there are some firefights with Locust and the art does a good job getting the violence across. I just feel that this story is pointless and wouldn’t make a difference to a Gears fan. I want to hear about a part of the war that wasn’t told in the games, not about some boring character trying to be sensitive.
Hollow is a decent 6 part comic series, but the art is the best thing about it. The story is pretty average and just unnecessary. I can only recommend this to hardcore fans looking to increase their Gears collection.
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