Look to the stars with super soldiers in the new series “The Forged.”
Written by Greg Rucka and Eric TrautmannCover by Mike Henderson
Illustrated by Mike Henderson
Colored by Nolan Woodard
Lettered by Ariana MaherIn the 11th Millennium of the rule of the Eternal Empress, a squad of planet-smashing super soldiers find their routine mission to be anything but. These are the Forged. They take no prisoners.
Written by GREG RUCKA & ERIC TRAUTMANN and brought to the page by MIKE HENDERSON, embark upon an over-the-top pulp adventure of sex, violence, and sci-fi inspired by Conan, Heavy Metal, and other comics you tried to hide from your parents.
A wide, sweeping space adventure can be an easy sell or a hard sell, depending on how it is handled. With a vast empire of sorts, it seems Greg Rucka and Eric Trautmann, having worked together before on the similarly science fiction-based “Lazarus” series, are taking the harder approach, with quite a lot of ground to cover for a debut. How do they do with a new series in “The Forged” #1?
As much as one might root for this story to succeed, the answer seems to be that the result, as penned by Rucka and Trautmann, is rather poor. Right off the bat, the reader is introduced to a massive amount of terminology, from “Cassandras” to some divine-seeming empress to the eponymous “Forged” themselves, all with minimal, if any, explanation as to what they are or how they work. In the case of the Forged, the solicitation for “The Forged” #1 seems to convey more information about them than the actual story, which treats them as a special class of person, but without much context. To a certain degree, the above solicitation actually provides more context for “The Forged” #1 than the pages of the story itself, which is an intrinsic problem for those who may just pick up and read this tale. While there may be little reason in-world to explain these terms, readers are just being introduced, and so will not have any context at all beyond a bunch of terminology that, despite having apparent worth, may as well be meaningless for all the clarity it provides. The best the story does at explaining comes in data pages after the main story’s final moments, meaning readers will need to read the entire thing just to grasp what is happening.
Beyond the many terms, another problem is how Rucka and Trautmann often shift between points-of-view. On the surface, the use of multiple perspectives could be perfectly fine, and may even be normal. However, when combined with an already confusing batch of circumstances, the lack of a single viewpoint makes the story all the harder to follow, made worse by the use of military jargon and random coordinates for which readers have no context at all. By the end of “The Forged” #1, a reader may not be upset, but instead left wondering what happened or why any of it matters.
As indicated by the solicitation’s mentions of mature themes, Rucka and Trautmann give quite a lot of those in “The Forged” #1. However, their use is anything but “mature,” instead bringing up profanity and adult subjects as if written for a far less mature audience, with cursing thrown around not as if it were a natural type of speech or for emphasis of certain situations, but instead just to prove how “adult” the story is, effectively trying so hard to look like it is not a children’s story that it wraps back around to be extremely immature. To be clear, profanity or subjects deemed profane are not in and of themselves bad to touch, but the treatment of such subjects is the immature element, especially disappointing after seeing more measured approaches from Rucka especially in series such as the aforementioned “Lazarus” or “The Old Guard” that can genuinely be considered mature.
The story may be lacking, but Mike Henderson does his best to make it palatable with his artwork. Though not as stylized and intriguing as his work on the likes of “Nailbiter,” the approach he takes in his illustrations does do a good job with the physicality and emotion of the various people. With a variety of characters, including apparent protagonist Victory, Henderson shows his expertise with facial expressions, both smooth in the execution and showing a rougher side to more hardened figures. The use of enclosed areas of certain spacecraft further enhances the already intense focus. His wider areas are also well-executed, with panning shots giving a scope of how large an area is, along with the relative size of certain vehicles being used by the Forged themselves, as well as the vast open nature of outer space itself. The perspective on images of those vehicles, including what seem to be robotic suits, really digs into the weight of them, making the entire setting of “The Forged” #1 feel just a bit more “real.”
Nolan Woodard is primarily known for his work at Marvel Comics, but his expertise with colors truly shines in “The Forged” #1 as well. The darkness of some areas stands out when put against the bright light of holographic interfaces. The deep browns and reds of a planet surface stand out against the grays and greens of the spaceship above. All of these hues stand in direct contrast to the cool purples and blues associated with the Cassandra, putting the ethereal nature of her powers into direct contrast against the mechanical setting that surrounds her.
Final Verdict: 5.0– A nigh-incomprehensible story sadly cannot be lifted up by artwork alone.
