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Rokkin #1 |
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Story Title: 'The Legend of Rokkin, Adventure Set
In Stone'
Writer: Andy Hartnell
Penciller: Nick Bradshaw
Digital Inks & Colors: Jim Charalampidis
Letterer: Jared K. Fletcher
Asst. Editor: Kristy Quinn
Editor: Scott Dunbier
Published by: Wildstorm
Productions
ROKKIN created by Andy Hartnell and Nick Bradshaw |
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Reviewed by:
Bruce Logan |
With Rokkin, (Claw The Unconquered and Skye Runner), it will be
three absolutely new series with the whole medieval-fantastical setting I’ve
read in the last three days. Agreed, I had to go and get the first two issues of
Skye Runner, but for me, it too was a new beginning along with these two. And
even though I must say that as a ‘not to big’ reader of this whole genre, I have
been pleasantly surprised and rather intrigued…by all three titles. What is even
more interesting is that all three are from the same publisher, Wildstorm
Productions. Lately, (starting with Captain Atom: Armageddon) I’ve found myself
trying and finally adding quite a few Wildstorm titles and minis to my pull
list. And all this is without what’s to come next, the whole ‘Worldstorm’ and
its related series.
All I can say is, thank you Marvel. Thank you for telling stories and
taking the characters (and the MU) in such a direction that made me dump my
entire 20+ long mainline Marvel pull list….and freeing the money for trying out
other avenues.
Anyways, as against those, Rokkin, the story of Arness is not set in some
utopian/dystopian future or some whacked out present. It is set in a time which
if I had to, I’d put around somewhere before the 12th century. As
with many a movie based around this style, we start in the future or rather the
present, and for a majority of the issue are given a….very touching and poignant
flashback of how the man known as Arness, (a man with just one wish, that too
able to make enough money to get a suitable jewel to ask the woman he loved to
marry him), became the Rokkin. And he gets his wish, all because of his
‘parttime-onetime’ stint as a hunter (along with his daytime job as a butcher).
He got the monster. He got the money. He got the jewel and finally the ring. He
gets it all, as does he get what he already have, the undying affection and
‘forever’ love of Dalia. The two of them even made a ‘home’ of their own. If
only things would have remained that way…
But they don’t which brings us back to the present…or at least a further along
point in the past. And it is from here that things look to pick up in the next
issue, one that I am looking forward to.
What impressed me most here is how the artwork not only gelled but also enhanced
the writing (Andy Hartnell). Even the colors (done by Jim Charalampidis along
with the inks), although a bit saturated in a few places, seem to be made for
Nick Bradshaw’s clean, expressive and depth-detailed pencilwork.
Conclusion: Skye Runner is a firm sell for me, Claw is 50-50. As
for this one? It slips in somewhere along the middle of those two. RATING:
8.5/10
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