Publisher: Image
Writer: Jeremy Haun & Seth M. Peck
Artist: Jeremy Haun & Seth M. Peck
Colourist: Nick Filardi
Release Date: OUT NOW!
Price: $3.99

In The Realm #1, Nolan is a bounty hunter who has been tasked by a guy in a crown who calls himself King – bit ‘on the nose’ character identification but what the heck – to bring back his wayward daughter.

This is all set in a dystopian future, so we get lots of pictures of ruined cities, wrecked cars etc. Naturally it’s a double cross but Nolan has a triple cross up his sleeve that makes the self-styled King regret not being a more benevolent ruler. One job over, Nolan meets with his boss, Marcus who already has a new job lined up for him. Cut to a bunch of juvie Green Arrow/Vigilante wannabe’s who are facing off against a bunch of Ogre-like cannon fodder. Turns out these are the guys who want Nolan to escort them to Kansas. Obviously they’ve never heard of clicking their heels together and saying: ‘There’s no place like home.’ Then we get a Necromancer type who spouts semi-mystical mumbo-jumbo as he slits a guys throat so that he can gain power or something.

Add to this Nolan is hiding a deep, dark secret of his own and has a secret friend that he calls ‘Batman’ and you can hear boxes being ticked to make this a mystical, sci-fi, bounty hunter mash-up that aims to hit all the right spots but suffers from first issue-itis and ends up being overcrowded and a touch muddled.

The Realm #1 is intriguing and stylishly rendered enough to make it worth sticking around to see how it all pans out but a ‘less is more’ approach might have been usefully applied in order to really hook the reader.

 

 

Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker