Assassins Creed Uprising #8 Featured Annotations 

Isu Codices, Volume 5: Catching up with “Assassin’s Creed”

By | October 24th, 2017
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We’re back to the Isu Codices, fresh off from some news out of New York Comic Con 2017.

Announcements
Assassin’s Creed: Origins Comic Miniseries
Coming out of New York Comic Con 2017, we have had the reveal of information about the upcoming comic book mini series for the game (which itself is being released on October 27). Mainly, we found out about the cover of one of the issues, seen below.

According to the creative director, that’s Aya, Bayek’s wife. We don’t have much information on them, but apparently she will be in the Hidden Ones (the nascent Assassin Brotherhood).

Given that “Assassin’s Creed: Uprising” is set to end with Issue 12, making for three four-issue arcs, it is likely that this series will continue after Uprising’s completion, likely into a new plot development after the Phoenix Project saga is done.

According to solicits, the first issue of this miniseries is coming January 3rd, 2018.

New Concepts
Phoenix Project

Álvaro Grammatica’s ultimatum.
The Phoenix Project has been the entire point of the arc going through this series, having been in place since as early as the game Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag in back in 2013, and more fleshed out in Assassin’s Creed: Unity the following year. The decision to finish off the second big arc of the franchise (if one considers the Desmond Miles saga the first arc) in a comic book series rather than a video game aside, it has remained the focus, albeit often more or less in the background, for the comic run, though more directly presented in “Uprising.”

In essence, the Phoenix Project is the latest attempt by Abstergo Industries, the late 20th and early 21st century incarnation of the global Templar Order, to take control of the Pieces of Eden. In theory, the idea is to use a Shroud of Eden, one of the Pieces (a famous one being the Shroud of Turin) that grants a healing factor so strong it can repair a fatal gunshot to the head, to reconstruct the body of a member of the Isu by use of their triple-helix DNA as found in Sages, essentially cloning one of the Precursors back into existence. The reasoning behind this process seems to have been in order to gain a better understanding of Precursor technology such as the aforementioned Pieces of Eden, and the fact that Warren Vidic’s replacement, Álvaro Grammatica, is pretty much insane (as shown by his lack of any hesitation to test said Shroud by shooting someone point blank (or even himself) repeatedly) doesn’t really help matters.

However, the entire project has been manipulated, perhaps even from its very inception. As through her agents the Instruments of the First Will, especially embedded within Abstergo, Juno has been trying to use the project in order to reincarnate herself into a physical body, thereby escaping the Grey. As the heroes note as they find out, this is a very bad thing. And considering where the Instruments of the First Will are arriving come the end of “Assassin’s Creed: Uprising” #8, things are quickly taking a turn for the worst possible scenario.

We are approaching DEFCON 2.

Still, it’s good to know the series is well aware of how ridiculous this is to people who’d just hear it.

Be honest, you'd probably feel the same way.

New Issues
Assassin’s Creed: Uprising #8
When we left off, Black Cross Albert Bolden and Assassin Ignacio Cardona had joined forces to face down Rufus Grosnevor, Templar double agent and spy working for the Instruments of the First Will. While it wasn’t entirely clear before, the words of his brainwashed lackeys from the Spanish Brotherhood of Assassins are more than enough, especially those of Glaucia Acosta.

Well… that’s not creepy at all.

Now then, before, Grosnevor seemed to just be evil. Now, on the other hand… he seems to be well on his way to being just as crazy as the Master Spy from 1916, though probably not a Sage in and of himself. Case in point:

Apocalyptic cults never really work out.
Continued below

His talk of the Koh-i-Noor, which is known to only be accessible by women, seems to imply that men can make use of it, but it is extremely dangerous for them to do so, as we saw earlier with Cardona’s attempt.

A bit crude, but it gets the point across.

That said, Cardona’s brief use of it seems to have given him enough information on its use to trick Grosnevor, making his one illusion be that of the destruction of the Piece itself, an event that seems impossible so far as the reader is aware. Still, the sheer power of the use turned the temple in which the groups fought to naught but rubble, showing that, much like how Juno used it, there is more to this weapon than a mind control device. Judging from the fact that Cardona was still holding it when the explosion occurred, it seems that the detonation affected only the stone, and not organic matter. This runs contrary to how Juno did the exact opposite with her lightning attack on the slaves in her era. Perhaps it is run by imagination? Or perhaps it is different for men than women? The result is unclear.

As discussed between Cardona and Bolden after the collapse of the temple and the latter saving the former quite some time later, the gem was buried in the mass grave when it was left there. While this was useful for them, and both the modern day heroes and the Spanish Civil War Templar/Assassin alliance believe they are the only ones with this information, players of Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate may be aware that Juno is capable of accessing Animus systems through the Grey and gathering intelligence through others’ uses. As such, the sheer fact that Juhani Otso Berg witnessed that event means that Juno is likely just as aware of the location of the Koh-i-Noor as her adversaries, making the time limit much more hectic than some may think.

On a side note, the narrative dissonance between the Templars working with fascist orders such as the National Socialist Party and Berg’s admonishment of anyone for thinking they would agree with such methods is finally addressed. Bolden, as the internal affairs agent known as the Black Cross, seems as disgusted by the affiliation as any others, showing that it is a corruption of the Order, rather than a true definition of their ideals. As such, while he is no Assassin ally, the goals of Bolden did align with those of Cardona to some degree, meaning that they worked together against the growing fascist influence in Spain for an unknown amount of time.

Well, that solves that.

Otso Berg’s tendency toward a smug nature is becoming more prominent the longer he’s with the Assassins. Yes, he’s doing a lot better at what he does than them, but even with his resources, a slip up at this stage can lead to disaster on a truly global scale. His behavior around the Assassins can be forgiven, considering he really doesn’t like them anyway, nor they him, not to mention he managed to keep his phone in spite of their efforts, making them seem more incompetent than usual.

Okay... yeah, he's got a point. Sort of.

However, his treatment of his friend Andre “Dre” Bolden (descendent of Albert Bolden and another Black Cross) in this issue is more worrying. Yes, he’s just joking around a bit, but he probably should have taken Dre’s hostile demeanor, his swearing, into account when asking for him to help. Who’s to say that, in his current state, he won’t make things so much worse, given he knows the identity of the Black Cross? Especially since Berg does not know that his partner Violet da Costa is a member of the Instruments, putting him at a disadvantage with Dre as their captive.

RUDE.

In all, the close of this arc seems to begin to bring this conflict even higher in stakes than before. With how things are ramping up, outright warfare seems inevitable.


//TAGS | Isu Codices

Gregory Ellner

Greg Ellner hails from New York City. He can be found on Twitter as @GregoryEllner or over on his Tumblr.

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