We Ride Titans is a new kaiju series from Vault Comics that fans of slick sci-fi won’t want to miss. Out this week, it’s like Pacific Rim and the rough-and-tumble attitude of Lethal Weapon had a baby. It’s a story about family, the falling out of that family, and the main character who really doesn’t want to be part of the family business.
Written by Tres Dean, this is a character-driven story focusing on Kit Hobbs. She lives with her girlfriend and seems to have ties to a guy driving a giant robot that’s saving a city from annihilation from a giant monster. The breadth of that statement isn’t as jarring as you might think, since Dean writes a very strong character here who is relatable.
Taking a step back, the sci-fi world is unveiled slowly but with a sure hand. Sebastián Piriz draws with a very clean style that suits the architecture and emptiness of the city at the start of the issue. It’s the future with all its clean lines and high-tech certainty. Cut to the giant mecha that Hobbs’s brother is controlling outfitted with tons of details. The clean style suits the design as it looks like something humans could believably craft.
An uncolored page from the issue.
Credit: Vault
As far as the conflict of the story is concerned, if you’ve ever had a falling out with a parent or know someone who has you’ll connect with this story. Kit is not talking to her parents, which is conveyed well in a tense scene with an unwelcome visitor to her door. Dean plays with dialogue well here–which is expertly acted by Piriz–drawing out the quieter moments well. There’s a back and forth here where you can feel the oxygen leaving the room a bit.
Somewhat fittingly, the opening scene showing a city that’s a bit sparse is also how this first issue reads: sparse. There isn’t quite enough here to dig your teeth into as it’s a slower paced story. We’re given the breadcrumb to follow, certainly, but it ends on a cliffhanger that leaves the reader with more questions than answers. It reads like the first part of a great graphic novel, so stay tuned for more.
There’s a new sci-fi kaiju comic that we should all be paying attention to, and it’s called We Ride Titans. While a bit short in its narrative, the visual style is unmistakably cool, with a main character you’ll want to follow as she faces kaiju and kicks ass.
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