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“Ares IX: Darkness” #1

By | December 20th, 2018
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

The 2017 Talent Hunt comics continue to come out this time with stories focusing on Ares, God of War for the “IXth Generation,” and Hades. Ares finds himself plagued by dark thoughts and Hades is tasked with a very strange job. Both stories give readers a different look at the world of the “IXth Generation.”

‘Ares IX: Darkness’
Written by Brendan Hodgon
Illustrated by Balazs Valyogos
Colored by Space Wolf
‘A Grave Meeting’
Written by Charles Crapo
Art by Mark Whitaker
Lettered by Troy Peteri

AN ALL-NEW ONE-SHOT FROM TOP COW TALENT HUNT WINNERS! Witness the untold chapter of a Demi-God’s story. After the Ascension of the IXs, Ares finds himself drawn to a mysterious catacomb. What he finds there will redefine his past, his future, and the entire IXth Generation!

The 2017 Top Cow Talent Hunt comic continue to come out with “Ares IX: Darkness,” the one shot features a 20 page main story focusing on Ares IX and a 6 page backup strip, “A Grave Meeting,” focusing on Hades IX. I have a bit of a soft spot for the “IXth Generation” setting, it was the first Top Cow Universe book I read as it was coming out. Despite it being knee deep in the lore and minutia of the Artifacts and latest Cyber Force series, “Rebirth,” it was easy enough to follow. It is a setting with plenty of storytelling possibilities which the creative teams on the main story and backup strip explore. While neither story is ground breaking both are competent with some bright spots. The talent hunt program and this issue did their job, identifying new talent and getting them a credit to point at.

‘Ares IX’

Something is unsettling the IXth generations God of War, haunting him, calling out to him from the darkness. Writer Brendan Hogdon’s script is sound as it puts Ares IX through a trial by combat and wraps itself up with the potential for more. The focus on Ares IX is interesting since hasn’t received a one shot before or been a POV character. The use of internal monologue can real ever so slightly overwritten at times, but is the correct narrative device for this story. It allows the comic to quickly exposit the narrative context and setup the emotional stakes for the lead. It also help keep everything taunt as Ares IX wonders catacombs monster hunting, Balaza Valyogos art is good but needs the friction of Troy Peteri’s lettering to slow things down and build a sense of tension.

‘Ares IX’ art team of Balaza Valyogos and the colorist known as Space Wolf bring an interesting art style to the IXth Generation. Valyogos conforms to the sleek hard edges technological aesthetic of the series, but he adds all these extra little lines and hashes along the way. The extra lines don’t create much sense of texture but accentuates everything. Valyogos and Space Wolf remind me of early “Postal” when it was Issac Goodhart with colors by Betsy Gonia, everything has the outside appearance of sleek cartooning but Space Wolf’s muted colors and the extra lines dirty things up. Space Wolf’s color palette is the inverse of the ones used by Stjepan Sejic and Atilio Rojo, theirs were super saturated and vibrant. If there is one short coming in Valyogos line work, his expression work for Ares IX reads a tad blank at times. This is due to both the line work and coloring making for a flat image when viewed straight on, it places the emphasis on the eyes and they aren’t that expressive in spots. As Ares IX triumphantly listens to the voice in side his head, his eyes read completely blank the overall image is correct but it lacks a bit of soul.

Where ‘Ares IX’ succeeds the greatest is in Balaza Valyogos page designs. They aren’t super splashy intricate double page spreads, the closet this story gets to a splash is a single page stinger at the very end. Everything else is just a series of simple squares and rectangles that are put together to create great flow. The biggest complaint with the flow is one page is setup in a “Z” orientation that is a tad awkward. There is a habit of inserting tiny micro action panels in some pages as bridging tools, they aren’t super detailed or the best but they got the job done. With smart, efficient, page design Brendan Hogdon, Balaza Valyogos , and Space Wolf nail a 7 page action sequence as Arex IX battles Top Cow’s version of The Stalk.

Continued below

The Ares IX story is just a plainly well made 20 page comic. It isn’t a grand artistic achievement but it gets in, hits the marks it set, and gets out. The art team provide a nice alternative to how the world of “IXth Generation” is generally shown.

‘A Grave Meeting’

‘A Grave Meeting’ by writer Charles Crapo and artist Mark Whitaker is the complete opposite of the ‘Ares IX’ story. ‘Ares’ was serious, tense, the line art is scratchy and the colors muted. In contrast ‘Meeting’ goes for comedy, Whitaker’s linework is soft, colors are brighter – but still soft – and pages have more open white space and free flowing panels. This gives the issue overall a nice balance.

This strip reads like a good “2000 AD” strip, Crapo moves things along briskly and with Mark Whitaker’s art it lands a majority of the comedy beats. The plot, Hades IX tasked with digging up a grave, is like the eccentric basis for something you’d find in a Prog. The strip is one scene but Crapo is writes good single pages that push things along. The dialectic, supposed, comedy derived from the horny gremlin doing a Louie De Palma from Taxi routine gets old pretty fast. It is however balanced by both Whitaker’s expressive art work with Hades IX and the script quickly smacking the supposed smart gremlin upside the head for it at every possible opportunity.

Mark Whitaker’s art is a nice change of pace from how the world of “IXth Generation” is represented. ‘Meeting’ is set fully in nature, a cemetery, at sunset which gives everything a nice soft light. His linework is similarly soft with few hard black lines, mostly used to give a bit of detail and for expression work. A light touch on the line work means they use the colors to play off one another and create the scene. This isn’t an impressionist color play, the figures are mostly flats interacting with a more detailed environment which gives everything a good sense of depth and energy.

Whitaker’s page design is very open, with lots of white gutter and free flowing panels. This style allows the physical comedy to play out in a call and response manner and feature the only things that are necessary for telling the story. As with the ‘Ares’ strip, it gets the job done with enough competency that it makes a good impression.

Both the ‘Ares’ main story and ‘Grave Meeting’ backup strip are well made and give the reader a different look at the world of “IXth Generation.”. Nothing about them is extraordinary, but they make a good first impression for these new talents, which is what the talent hunt is supposed to do. Mark Whitaker’s art has me curious to see if he pops up anywhere else.

Final Verdict: 7.0 – The stories inside “Ares IX: Darkness” don’t unlock secrets of the “IXth Generation” but are told well enough that they’re worth a read for fans of the series and curious observer.


Michael Mazzacane

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