Written by Dave Cook
Art by Clark Bint, Craig Paton
Published by Titan Comics
This was an interesting surprise.
I wasn’t sure what to expect with this book and was going in without reading a thing about it. The cover looked interesting enough and I figured I would give it a shot. I couldn’t believe how well developed the world was just from the very beginning. The details that this book has is quite excellent. It is a strong and unique book that I can honestly say is very original.
I also have to hand it to the publisher, Titan Comics. They are really putting out some of the consistently best comic books on the stands presently (check out their Conan comics, they are spectacular).
So what is this book about?
Well, it is a book that take place in the far flung future and it involved a game called Killtopia. It is described from the outset as being the most brutal blood sport. As soon as I heard that, I lit up like a Hanukkah bush. .
Honestly, it involved this sport and the setting is a cyberpunk kind of future? Sign me up.
The setting is Neo Tokyo and there are rampaging robots going amok. There is a disease running around. And the sport that is happening is that contestants are being used to hunt down these rogue robots and destroy them. It is nuts from the very first page and I truly could not get enough of this. If the contestants win the game then all sorts of fortune and good will comes their respective way!
Our main hero in this book is named Shinji.
He has a personal stake in winning this game. His sister is in a bad way, and he needs to win this game if she is going to make it. The personal stakes that the creators put in for Shinji are perfectly done. It is heartbreaking what is happening to his sister, so you can totally understand why Shinji goes and agrees to be part of this sport. The character driven scenes in this book are as important as the action and I loved how down to earth the creators made everything.
Of course, it eventually becomes time to get this show on the road so we get to see Shinji get ready to be part of this game. We get to see the process that he goes through and the different things that he has to do, leading up to him going out there and fighting. It is very strong and very well thought out. There are all sorts of characters here too in addition to the robots. There are yakuza gangs and various soldiers of fortune. Shinji has to navigate through them all to complete his tasks to his goal.
Shinji does get a partner as well.
Since he is a rookie mech-hunter, they give him a sidekick named Crash. Crash acts as his guide and de facto translator to the robots in Neo Tokyo. Shinji is working as a wrecker to get enough money to get the help for his tot infested sister. It is fun watching Crash take Shinji around to the various factions of robots in Neo Tokyo. But there is something deeper going on underneath the surface of the whole thing.
Word gets out about Crash’s abilities and we get to see that there is an organization called Lucky 7 that takes an interest in him. The leader of the Lucky 7 group named Saitoh decides to place a bounty on Crash’s head. This leads to a huge amount of interest in various factions to claim the bounty! We get to see them attack Shinji and Crash, trying to be the ones to take Crash in. It gets really crazy and a lot of action and excitement come from it all.
There is a lot of action in the book. There is also a lot of tension. The creative team are definitely influenced by a lot of the cyberpunk work that exists. But they do craft something that wholly original and exciting. Every part of this works at the highest level.
The artwork and the writing are top notch and I enjoyed this book very much. I hope they create more adventures to read that take place in this unique world. I would read them.
RATING: A
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