Written by Claudio Sanchez, Peter David
Drawn by Chris BurnhamHuge hit The Amory Wars comes to BOOM! this spring — right on the heels of creator Claudio Sanchez’s band Coheed and Cambria’s hot new album release Year Of The Black Rainbow this April! For the new The Amory Wars series, Eisner Award-winner Peter David joins this science fiction franchise, so don’t miss out! Heard about the ground-breaking The Amory Wars but never had a chance to get into it? This is a great entry point for new readers — also solicited this month, The Amory Wars Ultimate Edition, collecting the previous two trades published by Image! Created by Claudio Sanchez, lead-singer of Coheed and Cambria!
You may or may not remember, but I quite enjoyed the first installment of this series. Follow behind the cut for my thoughts on the second issue!
Two issues in and I’m already much more of a fan of the comic than I assumed I’d be. I fell out of love with the band the story comes from a long time ago and have never really been able to get back into them, but IKSOSE:3 will always be a great record in my mind. I suppose it’s fitting then that they’ve managed to get Peter David – one of my favorite comic book adapters, as well as a great creator – to work on this comic, because it is great and nothing at all what I thought it would be.
With the second issue, Claudio continues to tell the story of what has happened to him and his cast to his faithful dog. As Wilhelm Ryan amasses his forces in the hunt for the Grail Arbor, we are given a great look at the intertwining stories presented in the second volume of the Amory Wars. We get to see Chase and Sizer, as well as Al the Killer, all of whom had assumed minor roles in the story. With my interpretation of the story, they had always just appeared when necessary, but David has managed to create a world where they appear throughout – an ever growing presence in this dismal world.
As I’ve mentioned, David’s writing is really what sells me on the book. I’m not a fan of Sanchez alone, but when David is handed the notes and allowed to shape the story, then all will clearly be well. David has such a knack for weaving this threads together, so that the point where the story shifts from Claudio to Al doesn’t feel to odd at all and, despite Al’s significance being unclear at this point, it flows well. We’re still fairly into the story, but a good deal happens with this issue, and it’s action sequences near the end are great. It’s set up to be quite a powerhouse for issue #3, and if nothing else this issue has shown that Chris Burnham’s art is quite fitting. In fact, it’s entirely cinematic at times, such as during the story about the sea dragon.
For fans of Coheed and Cambria, this is obviously a must buy. However, for general fans of comic-dom, this has ended up being pretty good so far. If you haven’t caught up in the previous installment of the story, don’t fret because Boom will be reprinting it soon. Either way, right now as a stand alone entity IKSOSE:3 is working in comic book form, and for my mildly high school nostalgic heart (and I mean mildly) that’s a good thing.
Final Verdict: 8.1 – Buy
