Tear Us Apart is a new four-issue miniseries from Dark Horse Comics that combines romance, action, and bloody, gratuitous violence with assassins. The miniseries is written by Jay Baruchel (Tropic Thunder, How to Train Your Dragon) and Van Jansen (Superman: Man of Tomorrow). The first issue is impressive and begs the question: in the realm of assassins, do you listen to your heart or the authority?
Imagine living in an environment where you’re bred to be a living weapon and if you question it, you could be killed at any moment. That’s just a small taste of what happens in Tear Us Apart #1. We’re introduced to a cult in the Canadian wilderness led by a bearded man known as Paternoster. Paternoster trains children to become deadly assassins while instilling his sadistic ideologies in their minds. Each child is assigned a number, and Paternoster’s strict rules forbid love, which he considers a weakness and a failure. However, two of his young assassins, known as Twenty-Five and Eighty-Two, have fallen in love and will have to fight against a horde of assassins to keep their love and themselves alive.
Tear Us Apart #1 is an impressive and exhilarating comic book that presents a fresh perspective to the classic story of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The comic book blends inspiration from movies like John Wick, The Hunger Games, and Universal Soldier to create its own unique and thrilling narrative. Tear Us Apart #1 is a captivating and highly entertaining read. What I like most about Tear Us Apart is that Baruchel and Jansen do an excellent job laying out the overall plot of the story and do a good job of layering that plot with other obstacles for the characters to overcome, like how Twenty-Five always comes up second best to a rival character named Thirty-Seven who wouldn’t hesitate to kill Twenty-Five or Eighty-Two if he gets his hands on them.
The pencil illustrations by Alessandro Micelli are absolutely stunning throughout the book, and they really capture the emotions, violence, and storyline of Tear Us Apart. One of my favorite panels is the one that shows the Paternoster at the beginning of the story. The angles and images created by Micelli make the Paternoster look like a serious threat to our protagonist Twenty-Five and Eighty-Two. The cherry on top is the excellent lettering by Taylor Esposito. His bubble placement makes even the smallest amount of dialogue impactful. For example, on one page, the Paternoster says “Yes. Yes you will”, and the placement of the speech bubble really adds to the impact of the line.
Overall, this team has done an excellent job. Tear Us Apart #1 is visually stunning, and it’s a solid first issue. It leaves a good enough impression to make you want to come back and read the next book.
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