Vault Comics has put plenty of hype into their new dark fantasy series Unnatural Order. Along with that hype come high expectations. Vault is even trying an interesting marketing strategy: giving this first issue to retailers for free. Starting on release day this Wednesday, the retailers can give away or sell the issue at a discounted price. The idea is to get Unnatural Order #1 into as many hands as possible, with the confidence that the reader will be hooked and come back for the forthcoming issues.
So, did Unnatural Order #1 get me hooked? Kinda, but not completely.
The story takes place around 50 B.C. during the growth of the Roman Empire. Except in this alternate history, something has gone wrong and an evil figure known as the Druid has filled the Empire with his dark magic. The first issue repeats its major theme often enough: something isn’t as it should be and the world has become unnatural, hence the title.
The rest of the story feels like a comic book version of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. A group of five people – each having suffered at the hands of the Druid in some way – band together to go on a quest to end the dark sorcerer’s evil reign. All of the classic character types are present – the young sorceress, the noble soldier, a female warrior, a sly thief and the savage barbarian. You’ll find more arrows, axes and spears than swords, but also plenty of sorcery.
This very familiar fantasy narrative does get a twist in the end, but let me get back to that later.
The biggest reason for Vault’s high expectations is most likely the stellar creative team, led by well-known writer, Christopher Yost. In comics, Yost is most famous for his contributions to the X-Men, including co-creating Laura Kinney aka X-23/Wolverine. But he also has a number of well-regarded writing credits in film and television, including on the MCU favorite Thor: Ragnarok as well as episodes of The Mandalorian.
I can’t recall knowing the rest of the creative team before reviewing this issue, which is a shame, because the art is definitely the best part of the book.
Val Rodrigues’ style immediately caught my eye and continued to impress until the end. Strangely, I find it hard to adequately describe what I like most about the style, but that’s probably due to my lack of vocabulary. The art strikes me as very modern but at the same time almost a throwback. There are clean lines depicting the characters, but also lots of almost abstract parts that create a beautiful whole. It’s at once very detailed and yet almost minimalistic in that many panels lack detailed backgrounds.
Equally important to this style and the overall impact of the art are the stunning colors from Dearbhla Kelly. More muted than vibrant, the colors really bring the images to life. They often completely grabbed my attention, especially when the colors enhance the use of sorcery or the super-natural. The interplay between Rodrigues’ art style and Kelly’s colors may be my favorite part of the comic.
The credits page only lists Andworld Design as letterer. Whoever actually exists behind this company name did an excellent job, especially in depicting the evil words of menacing demons or the overly loud voice of the barbarian, Gunther.
And yet despite the great art and lettering, overall Unnatural Order #1 left me feeling less than enthusiastic. And the faults lie mostly in the story.
First off and most important, the comic obviously lacks character development. As mentioned already, each member of the heroic group fulfills one of the well-known character types of classic sword and sorcery stories – soldier, warrior, sorceress, thief and barbarian. But the characters lack any depth besides these classic types. The artists make each character look distinct and interesting, but I couldn’t find much anything else in them to relate to. I couldn’t even tell you their names without searching for them in the book.
Even the villainous Druid lacks sufficient development. A lot is said about how evil, depraved and powerful he is. But not much of it is directly shown or experienced. He actually only appears in the opening, introductory scene – one of the better scenes in the comic. After that, he’s only talked about and the band of heroes only do battle against his evil minions. Accordingly, I found it hard to truly feel how evil and menacing he is supposed to be.
Another ironic problem, Unnatural Order #1 covers a lot of story for just one issue. We almost get the complete heroes’ quest in about 30 pages. In the end, I realize why Christopher Yost chose to cover so much in just one issue. But while reading it, the narrative feels too much like a condensed version of what should be a 5-6 issue miniseries. Telling so much story is probably why the character development comes too short. The pacing also suffers – things happen without enough setup or buildup.
And so, for most of the comic, Unnatural Order #1 feels like an abbreviated version of a relatively standard sword and sorcery dark fantasy – nothing really to get me hooked.
That is, until two intriguing twists in the last three pages make things more interesting. The first throws an unexpected wrinkle in the standard heroes’ quest. The second is a really great, genre-smashing, last-page reveal and cliffhanger.
The only problem is that the synopsis on the back of the comic basically spoils the last-page twist. I can’t understand why Vault would do that. The whole issue is built around convincing us readers that we are reading a standard fantasy story, only to completely subvert those expectations with a surprise last-page reveal. Why would you ruin that surprise on the back cover and in every piece of press for the series?
And if I hadn’t known the whole time what was coming, it could’ve been a truly jaw-dropping moment. It’s mind-blowing enough that it would’ve gotten me interested in buying the next issue to find out what in the world is going on – which is what Vault is aiming at by giving this issue away for free. Instead – knowing all the time what was coming – the last-page twist lost almost all of its intended impact.
So, please, if you haven’t already read the synopsis or any other press for Unnatural Order #1, don’t! Read the issue without any other prior knowledge. (Yes, I realize that if you’ve read this far, you already have too much prior knowledge. I’m sorry.)
In conclusion, for most of the issue, Unnatural Order #1 by Christopher Yost, Val Rodrigues and Dearbhla Kelly feels like a condensed version of a fairly standard swords and sorcery fantasy story with truly excellent art. It unfortunately lacks character development, instead presenting lots of plot. While the bulk of the story feels average, the last-page reveal is intriguing enough to get me to check out issue #2. It’s just too bad this surprise twist is spoiled by the comic’s own synopsis.
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