Thoughts on Wayne Reynolds (including Raintown)

When I’d ordered The Complete Kal Jerico I’d only been taken as far as the fifth episode of the namesake character. I’d indulged in the brilliant artwork of Mister Karl Kopinski. So it was much to my shock when I opened up the book-thicker-than-a-bible to see the artist changes after Motherlode. I skimmed over the next few episodes (skimmed literally, I only read them later). I’d once commented that Karl’s art was of a finer calibre than even the best of the Necromunda range of miniatures. Wayne Reynolds isn’t; as a matter of fact it’s worse. But I’d been crucially missing context. Just because the art was cartoonier didn’t mean the stories were worse. Even more importantly, it’s easy to miss how the pictures flow without reading the story through. Karl’s art seems disjointed without narration.

Baring these things in mind I began my read-through of the Wayne Reynolds episodes. At current I finished The Delivery just before starting this review. It’s hard not to be able to squeeze in a five-page comic after-all.

I’m pleased to say that Wayne Reynolds isn’t a bad artist. Not by a long short. Sure, he’s not excellence, being my biased opinion of Karl Kopinski. At his best he can maintain a wonderful sense of movement or pull in a strong atmosphere. He favours an angular style of character. This kind-of reminds me of the Dreamworks movies The Prince of Egypt & The Road to El Dorado. As a matter of opinion, the style in which the main protagonists are drawn in these movies is a little similar to the way Reynolds draws Kal Jerico, albeit with a grimdark edge.

Cal Gerrico, Tilean adventurer

At worst Wayne Reynolds is something else. His cartoony style can sometimes work well with the absurdity of the situation, and by this I mean it brings it out pretty well. Deff Skwadron had a similar style. This can also be the problem. Kal Jerico works well as a slightly preposterous adventure series, but it’s kept interesting by its intelligent slant. When the absurd comes out it sometimes feels that Reynold’s art is juggling to making it enjoyable. Save that he isn’t a trained juggler. Therefore, sometimes it covers it well, and sometimes it only highlights the embarrassing writing.

Occurring patterns that I’ve noticed include these (these are the gripe-worthy): Cramming gang-level gunfights into a single frame like they belong on sixties comedy poster. Event-by-event frames to show the interesting & absurd that happens in a journey whilst cutting out all of the deep & intellectual. And Scalies.

I dislike the frame-crammed gunfights because they take away movement, time and space. Everybody ends up shooting each-other at point blank, and it serves only to transition quickly. You get none of the wonderfully fleshed-out battles of yester-issue. It’s naff. I dislike and like simultaneously the event-by-event frames. They are usually just flung in to show awesome things happening, and to over-spice the midsection. Sometimes there’s a wonderful reference or bit of comedy, maybe an integral plot element, but equally often I end up wondering why my freshly purchased hotdog has spices on it. But then we have Reynold’s Scalies, and my word where did the scalies go? They were established looks-wise before, and now we’re left with escapee Crazy Bones. They’re devoid of anything short of the laziest drawing that shouldn’t be in these comics. Reynolds is, after-all, capable of some brilliant little details in his frames. I’m left pondering why he did it. Luckily I’ve only seen one of these in Kal Jerico so far, but in Redeemer they’re like flipping rabbits!

Doesn't look so out of place, does he?

But to highlight the good a little better, here’s my review of Raintown.

Raintown

“The remote underhive settlement of Raintown, where the locals scavange a living from the rich mineral deposits created by the dumping of chemical wastes from the vast hive more than half a mile overhead! Life is hard in Raintown, and every scavenger’s dream is to strike it rich before they succumb to the poison air and pollution of the place. However, there is one thing here they fear more than anything – acid rain from the factories above, dumped without warning into the underhive.

“A good rule of thumb in Raintown is never to be more than twenty paces from the nearest hard cover. Not surprisingly, Raintown is a haven for wanted outlaws with a price on their head, because what bounty hunters would be desperate enough to follow their quarry to such a place?”

Unsurprisingly enter Kal Jerico and Scabbs. But phwoar, with good enough set up text like that you scarcely need art, but Reynolds still adds to it: the ramshackle slums, the downtrodden look of the inhabitants, the lone straggler melting slowly away as life and flesh meld into skeletal lifelessness. Even Kal and Scabbs entrance is quite nicely dramatic.

In this story they’re played more as enforcers of the law; a nice touch bearing in mind their profession. They’re asking after a pair of criminals who you can only see the names of briefly on their wanted poster in one frame, “Bucket Head Jaxxon” and “Plate McGrew”. They’re worth five hundred credits apiece, dead or alive. By now we start seeing the scale of prices and what amounts make it worthwhile doing what. Below I've included a list of what we've had so far in the way of bounties. Maybe this’ll be my new gimmick.

1. Yolanda Catallus – 5000 credits. Knowledge that she had become a famed criminal made it likely that House Catallus would be shamed and unlikely to pay reward for her rescue.

2. Kal Jerico – 1200 credits. A price high enough to bring out the greediest wanted criminal scum out of hiding to claim the reward of, and a worthwhile trade off for bringing in Vandal Feg.

3. “Outlands Annie” – 1000 credits. Affections made it that Kal dropped his claim on her.

4. Bucket Head Jaxxon & Plate McGrew – 500 credits each. Price just worth pursuing them both to the death-trap of Raintown.

5. Escaped pit slaves – 80 credits.

Now it is my opinion that any series that revolves around Bounty Hunter protagonists does well to tell us where there money is going. It’s incentive for the plot. It practically sets up situations and adds some small element of depth to the characters. Knowing by now that Kal is prone to blowing money on gambling, seeing him joke about coming quietly costing less in ammo expenditure was something a tad funny.

Anyway, just as Kal finishes asking for the wanted party they smash a bottle over his head and make a run for it into the pouring rain. Kal recovers and along with Scabbs they give chase, given due warning that even with chem-cloaks they will only last five minutes. What happens next is a game of cat and mouse. Kal and Scabbs split up, and use their smarts to wrangle the culprits. This is where Wayne Reynolds skills show up again – he draws a wonderful hunter & hunted situation. The rain restricts the field of vision, and Kal is forced into biding his time and dodging ambushes, using feedback of the last occasion to pinpoint his quarry. Moreover, he takes his time with the pacing of the action in this piece.

Finally, after a few minutes in the rain, Kal spies his prey under cover. With little time left he approaches quickly from behind only to find he’s been set up (I won’t tell how. It’s part of the fun). Kal narrowly avoids a scalping and in a desperate last measure kicks the attacking outlaw into the rain where the melts away unprotected. This entire sequence is rich with some brilliant tension-building and atmosphere. Kal is left to sit out the downpour; when it does end, Scabbs returns with the other mark.

It’s really unique to see Kal utterly fed up at the end of a story, and this is one of those melancholy endings. This story is such a simple idea, but it is so well drawn and so well told. I find it hard to conclude exactly why I like this episode so much, but it’s probably all explained above. Plus, it’s nice to see Scabbs developed to a point where Kal trusts him enough to go after bounties himself, and is capable of pulling it off. Raintown scores a well-deserved 8 out of 10, and highlights more of Wayne Reynolds pros than any other I've read this far.

Next time I’ll be covering Licenced to Kill and Code of Honour. ‘Til then!

--Blackwire. 

Motherlode

I remember after being riveted by my first reading of Nemo and thinking that it would be nice to have a longer Kal Jerico story. Obviously the writer must've been having a similar line of thought some fourteen/thirteen years ago, because only two episodes later began the whopping four-part Motherlode (well, whopping by Warhammer Monthly standards anyway). In this review I’m going to cover the entire story in four parts – to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each chapter. Each part I’m going to rate independently, and then I’m going to deduce my score for Motherlode by mathematical average of my four scores, rounding the total to the first decimal place. Here goes...

Chapter One

Motherlode opens paralleling Nemo. Someone’s gunning for Jerico, and the quick thinking bounty hunter is already in over his head. Cornered in his usual drinking hole, he has been forced into a small scale fire-fight of attrition. As opposed to high-end Spyrers, Kal instead is being overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Spurring on intuition, Kal makes an escape with his guns, a weakened nearby wall and the right amount of momentum to break out. It seems openings of this sort are prone to some of the most enjoyable writing and action.

Kal’s quickly on his feet and moving. Downing a pair of backups in the alley outside Kal deduces that these men are guilder mercs of the entrepreneur Guzman Ludd – a bulbous, sadistic Mafioso merchant who deals in the hard, and often risky to acquire. Again vigilantly on his feet and thinking up a way out at just as quickened pace, Kal runs obliviously and headlong into the choking clasp of an old acquaintance – Vandal Feg, who is now under the leash of the present Guzman Ludd and his retinue. Vandal has been enhanced to new more brutish levels by his now-boss.

One big, not-so-happy family

The cigar-chomping fat-man has had Scabbs captured, and likely is the reason that Kal was found in the first place, though how exactly The Sump Hole doesn’t have ‘Kal Jerico’ in big neon letters to any seeking him is an intriguing question in its own right.

Two days later in the underhive wasteland and Kal and Scabbs have been shackled and forced to lead the palanquin-mounted crime lord (who is doing a superb Jabba the Hutt impression, complete with shapely slave-girls) and his lackeys to an as-of-yet unexplained location. By now I’d usually of made a feature of the gang present. Clearly Guzman’s lackeys are a gang in their own right, but they have no scribed affiliation to a known group, or any identifying features. Simply, they are Guzman’s lackeys. Kudos to Karl’s art again, most notably the wind-swept underhive he creates, and careful eye for detail, showing how a few days without maintenance that Kal’s lost his signature braids.

As this portion of the story rounds up, Ludd explains that he has had visions of the Motherlode – a legendary horde of archeotech buried in the sands of the underhive, and that Kal and Scabbs will be the ones to lead him there. Now Ludd isn’t the best of the villains in this. Sure he comes across the indomitable bad guy in the first act. What really captures the imagination is his gimmick. The self-imposed prophet is a Spook abuser. His visions are gifted to him by a drug that optimises the user’s prescient capabilities. A drug that gives the user psychic powers, that’s pretty bad-ass. Plus it picks up upon the kind of the depths of coolness found in the Inquisitor rulebook.

Ludd’s visions are thick with atmosphere. Just looking into his eyes as he starts to recall you can see the look of a man not present save in mind’s eye – depthless by how detached he is. It really paves the way well, and builds a great climactic feel to the first chapter.

Finally, we see a further hint to the next episode, a lurking Scavvy gang, obscuring the path ahead. Chapter One of Motherlode is a brilliant set up, not only for the story and the villains, but for the upcoming stories too. However, it still doesn’t some quite so close as Nemo, and even borrows from it a little to establish a degree of success. That in mind, I had melded some of the better parts of the action from this and Nemo together before the re-read. So the action is on par with Nemo and the drawing power really sets in with Guzman’s psychic premonitions. The first part scores 8 out of 10.

Chapter Two

Yet again, we’re thrown into the action as the Scavvies attack! And at this point we’re introduced to an interesting narrative tool that I’ve only seen in Motherlode this far in. Quotes of old Imperial scholars and even a dictionary definition of Necromundan words are used at the outset of the Chapters as exposition. And not only do they provide some useful information, but they help ease you into the background, building depth to the 41^st millennium as a whole and tying a solid knot between the spin-off and it’s originator.

Chapter two focuses on Kal Jerico and Scabbs making an impromptu escape. For the fact it’s just this I should note that it feels in this episode that the quality of the action scenes have been upped from the forerunning ones. Maybe it’s just the fact we have full gang-on-gang war over three pages. Not once have the scales of the fight scenes been this big in a prior episode.

As the battle rages, Kal and Scabbs loot a chainsword, cut free of their chains, and run. The immobile Guzman notices the escapees and orders his hound (Vandal) to chase them down. The pit slave complies and the next two entire pages are the ensuing fight between Kal and Feg. As they are caught up in the mano-a-mano confrontation, Scabbs notices the place is coming down. Vandal and Jerico are now far enough removed from the larger conflict. The hivequake lets them stumble by chance right into the Motherlode itself! The lone cybernetic claw of Vandal can be seen from a nearby pile of rubble, and we’re left with the two lucky protagonists as Chapter Two ends.

It is a credit to the subtlety that Kal Jerico comics are capable of that we’re fed knowledge of Hivequakes right at the beginning of Chapter One – in the middle of the gunfight in The Sump Hole to be precise. The action is racy, and yet again I feel comparisons to Pirates of the Caribbean coming on. But I’ll collar myself there. Chapter Two rides well on the set up of climax of Chapter One. It even keeps the fresh images of The Motherlode to tantalise you oh so much when Kal and Scabbs fall accidentally into it. Yet again, an 8 out of 10 rating.

Chapter Three

Scabbs becomes giddily overjoyed with the riches about him. Delusions of grandeur start taking root in his mind, but Kal’s more concerned with other matters, most notably the all-too-present bones in easy sight all over the cavernous Motherlode. Whilst I loved Scabbs mentions of hiring an entire Space Marine chapter (improbable as it is), and the use of Scav as a swear (having the right amount of impact, Ash is just plain censorship), it’s the undercurrent of intelligence to these flights of fantasy that give these comics edge. Kal works out that there are far too many bodies strewn amongst the Motherlode. Whatever killed them therefore is clearly passed his capabilities.

Kal spies Guzman and his gang further down the depths of the archeotech tunnels. With the Scavvies still hot on their tail Kal jumps in to save the day, reasoning to make it back out they’re going to need all the manpower he can muster. We’re presented with more frame-filling gang war, but this time Kal has far more of a presence in it – ably tipping the tables in favour of Guzman’s party. Particularly funny, is a part when Kal rips a grenade-earring from a ganger’s ear to down a good many Scavvies, and the dialogue between the two afterwards.

Finally, as things are looking up Guzman double-crosses Kal Jerico, breaking his moments-earlier truce. Kal pleads a quite accurate case of the situation. Unfortunately, as we find out now, Guzman, the “prophet” merchant, is an idiot. As Kal pleads his case, in enters the guardian of the Motherlode, swallowing one of Guzman’s guards whole. And it’s a giant spider, the likes of which were hinted at back in Yolanda. The boss fight is set.

'Giant spider', you say?

Chapter Three holds up fairly well. Yet there’s a certain element missing from the earlier episodes, maybe it’s that atmosphere and build up. This feels kind of the in-between Chapter. The waystation if you will. There are some bonuses, the jokes for one. Also the easter eggs. There are a few jokes about Guzman’s prophetic reputation hiding in plain sight. “The Ludd is my shepherd” is on the cover of a book attached to one of his lackeys. Another, the guard who is swallowed whole, has a tattoo with “In Ludd we trust” across his upper body. These brought me a small smile inside. Overall, I give Chapter Three 7.5 out of 10. It’s still very good, just not quite to the level of the previous two chapters.

Chapter Four

Now Guzman Ludd’s true stomach is revealed. He’s a complete coward the moment he’s directly in danger. Primarily the spider focuses on Ludd, chasing him down and eating the majority of his remaining men. As the spider attacks the group it’s Kal who ultimately saves the day, using one of his sharpest weapons – his intuition. The hide of the spider is too thick to penetrate with las-bolts, but Kal is only shooting at the spider to get its attention, and with that get the great beast exactly where he wants it. When it’s in the kill zone, Kal shoots the loosened rock-face above, and brings the ceiling down on the great beast, and as coincidence would have it, the Scavvies worship these giant spiders as gods.

The Scavvies are still a present threat, and now Guzman’s group is all but eliminated, they make another attack, infuriated at the loss of their deity. Kal and Scabbs make a climb for safety as a long queue of Scavvies are in heated pursuit. At this moment Guzman reappears, and begs Kal to save him. Kal hauls the giant up the rock, and then gets his own back as he uses him as a distraction for the oncoming Scavvies. Just as Kal and Scabbs think they’re clear Vandal shows up at the last second, but he’s dispensed of much in the same way as the spider.

In the last scenes of Motherlode we see Kal and Scabbs outrunning the collapsing cavern. They wander off into the distance happy to still be alive. Vandal emerges onto the surface from the cave in. And what of Guzman? It’s heavily implied his capture by the Scavvies is his end (though you’ll have to read to find out how).

The end of Motherlode is unfortunately a tad lacking. It’s not bad mind. I still give it 7 out of 10 because it holds well with the ending. But it feels a tad rushed, but some of that plays well with the pacing. It’s stories like this that make me recount that Warhammer 40,000 is Space Fantasy, or more appropriately as the great Alan Merrett himself once said, Science-Fantasy. In its most basic form this story is a treasure-quest with a giant spider in a mystical and ancient dungeon. It doesn’t often get more fantasy than that!

I’ll give Guzman Ludd a villain rating, though the likelihood that he’s dead makes it feel a bit redundant (as good comic book villains always come back). He was enjoyable to begin with, but came to suffer from the same lack of likeability as Beni from The Mummy, and for the same reasons. Guzman Ludd gets the same score as Cardinal Crimson, 6.5 out of 10.

'I might be a likeable character someday!'

Motherlode comes to 7.6 out of 10. A nice first four-parter, even if it wasn’t quite sure how to pace it’s extra story-space. Next I’ma tackle my thoughts on the change of artists in Kal Jerico, and review the next episode Raintown.

--Blackwire 

Nemo & Redemption

Nemo

At the time of writing this, I’ve gone on and read Raintown, Licenced To Kill, and Code of Honour, but of the eight episodes I’ve covered, Nemo is my favourite. As it starts we’re dropped right in the middle of the action. Kal is being pursued by assailants he’s yet to even lay eyes upon. If that doesn’t put forward the urgency of the situation, that Kal Jerico – a man competent of taking on small underhive gangs by himself – is second-guessing hails of shots, running like the plague’s behind him and isn’t even able to pull off a clean shot – then when he does catch a glimpse of his assailants, you should have an inkling.

Spyrers. “Uphive bounty hunters. The worst kind of expert killers.” There’s another reason I love this episode. The first half of it is Kal madly running for his life. The narration in this segment is delivered completely by way of thought, and it’s top-notch, and remains top-notch throughout. Oh, and yet again Karl Kopinski is to be highly praised for his artwork. His renditions of Necromundans are better than the miniatures Games Workshop themselves produced. But I never really disliked most of the miniatures. Spyrers, however, always looked clunky and outdated no matter their house of origin, which was not complemented by their horrible colour choices. Don’t get me wrong, I like the flavour text about them, but if the specialist games were still updated they could've given the Spyrers a Dark-Eldar-like makeover. Karl Kopinski’s agents of house Orrus and house Malcadon are perfect, and by far some of my favourite art-pieces within the Kal Jerico comics.

Despite making a brave dash for freedom, and even killing one of the Malcadon Spyrers, Kal is caught off-guard by one of the Orrus bounty hunters crashing through a wall, which in a hail of darts joins Kal to the nearest flat surface (another wall). Just as you’re left wondering what’s going to happen next, the Spyrers themselves are bushwhacked. Surrounded and horribly outgunned by Delaque gangers, and with one of their number reduced to slag before them, even the combat-hardened Spyrers are open to parley.

Cheka – a ganger who speaks on behalf of the gang leader Nemo – tells the Spyrers their previous contracts are null and to go about their business. The undercurrent of the conversation implies that if the Spyrers hadn't be willing to surrender, the very mention of Nemo has deterred them, and even if they had been willing, it acted as incentive. The Spyrers are allowed to leave, and Kal and Cheka catch up like only old enemies know how. Kal gets roughed up in a way certain to happen in every part of the dollars trilogy. Bloodied, Kal puts aside “pleasantries” with some deductive work. He tells Cheka that if Nemo had wanted him dead then he wouldn’t have gone to such lengths. We find out that usually saying his name warrants a death sentence. Given his predicament, however, Kal is willing to take chances. And then enters Nemo.

““Nemo the Faceless. Nemo the Secrets-Gatherer. Spymaster of Hive Primus and, it is rumoured, agent of the Inquisition.”” And his design is hands down the coolest, most stylish character drawn in the comic series I’ve seen so far! He exudes bad-assery. What we have here is perhaps the most fleshed-out character we have in the whole of Kal Jerico.

Kal is questioning of his motives, and Nemo is ready to answer, albeit vaguely. He makes it clear that he could’ve killed him, and that Kal Jerico now owes him a debt; when Nemo wishes to use Kal as his pawn, so it will be. And then he exits and the episode leaves off on a melancholy tone, which is slightly out of the norm for Kal Jerico.

So here we have a brilliant story, which in essence exists to set up a villain, and the possibility of another story. And, wow, my mind goes giddy at the prospects of subterfuge that could be playing in the background here. I wouldn’t put it passed a villain like Nemo having hired Spyrers to chase down Kal and corner him just to make an example. His build-up, his entrance and his exit are all simply amazing, and he ekes the prospect of more good stories to come just by him turning up. I hope the author(s) don’t cock this one up.

Nemo as a story gets an 8.5 out of 10. Yet again, in similarity Nemo himself gets an 8.5 out of 10.

Redemption

Now we go from the good to cheesy. Not cheesy as in bad, maybe a guilty pleasure at worst, but it is flawed and requires a pinch of salt. Redemption showcases the Redemptionist Cult. They get more screen-time in their 5 page episode than any of the other gang thus far. Basically the whole story is easily summarised as Scabbs gets kidnapped by Cardinal Crimson’s Redemptionists and Kal Jerico makes a awesome rescue, with all the planning and foolishness of Jack Sparrow. This is definitely the story where that side of his personality shows through more prominently.

Cue the theme!

So Cardinal Crimson’s band of religious zealots has been undergoing their heretic-nabbing sessions in the underhive. They’ve captured a bountiful amount, and amongst them is Scabbs. The Cardinal sees this as an opportunity to pontificate to his congregation, and heretics are thrown into the fires as he preaches. The Cardinal’s fall is he gets too carried away in his pontificating. Kal Jerico swings in like a true swashbuckler, kicks the Cardinal into the fires and unties Scabbs and the two make their improvised escape. Action. Explosions. Shooting. Exit.

We then find out the Cardinal survived in a Joker/Two-Face turn of fate, and he now in his burnt form has decried Kal Jerico as the utmost heretic. Because he’s Westborough Baptist Church leader material given a gun and lackeys.

He is crispy indeed. Hallelujah!

  

To the credit of the story it has two strong-points. One: Kal takes a fall during the escape, and Scabbs is there to hoist him to safety. This is the first instance we see Scabbs as a useful accomplice as he’s under fire when he does so. Two: Redemptionist cults are the kind of religious zealots found at the heart of 40k humanity. Pro-Imperial nut-jobs taking things to the extreme. But it’s how the story handles them. Given the cheese that oft sneaks into Kal Jerico, it’s quite entertaining to read the Cardinal’s sermons, and it feels all too fitting of the genre how he returns, even if still cheesy. This is how comic book 40k Emperor-worshippers are okay to be portrayed, and not like they are in the abysmal Redeemer comic series (which I've read a few of by now). But I’ll have more about that to ramble about later, when Kal Jerico and The Redeemer start accumulating similarities properly.

The con of the story is it feels like it would have been a better origin story for Cardinal Crimson if we’d already seen him as a villain before.

Redemption scores 6.5 out of 10. Cardinal Crimson scores a 6.5 out of 10 too (I swear I’ll start diverging the scores for villains and their stories again).

Next up on the autopsy table is the four-part episode, Motherlode.

--Blackwire.

The Hit & Yolanda

So here are the first story reviews proper, The Hit & Yolanda. The Hit is the first of the line of Kal Jerico comics, and Yolanda is chronologically after. Likewise this is the way I’ll be tackling them – Chronologically.

The Hit

Kal Jerico is informed by Scabbs that a high price has been put on his head. Characteristically Kal seems unperturbed, and why? Kal is the man with the plan. The setting of this venture takes place inside of, and just outside of the Sump Hole – a den of local miscreants and underhivers. As is standard of Karl Kopinski’s artistic skills, the frames are crammed with detail, and while it takes a careful eye to absorb all of the surroundings, more immediately in sight we have all sorts of deviants. I was joyed to see an Escher ganger amongst them. Anyway, without getting distracted here, it isn’t long before Kal’s high bounty attracts some claimants. And here is where we have the first of our Necromunda gangs featured: Pit Slaves, oozing with thuggish menace, and covered in bionic replacements and implanted weaponry.

No matter their three-to-one advantage, Kal quickly dispatches them, and through some awkward transitional dialogue explains that he in fact was the one to plant a bounty on his own head to bring out the notorious Vandal Feg, who has a much larger bounty than his.

Starring Kal Jerico as John "Hannibal" Smith

Now as far as villains go Vandal is only really a bigger, more bionically enhanced version of the thugs that he sent to flush out Kal. It’s similar to thwarting mobs of thugs in the Arkham games only to have to confront a Titan-enhanced thug. Standard miniboss formula, but I’ll be damned if it doesn't work. I mean it’s cliché and all but it allows Kal to explain his rather well thought-out scheme and then use his cunning and reflexes to disarm Vandal and subdue him. Also, it’s the fast versus strong mash up. Kal has to use Vandal’s weight against him on top of trick shots and sword-swipes to disable his armaments.

Vandal Feg

I suppose there’s only one flaw to this story. It feels too much like a pilot, even going so far as to play the ending safe in the case it either succeeds or fails. It’s practically on the verge of saying, ‘And Kal lived happily ever after’. But don’t get me wrong, this is a minor setback, and it’s still able to portray its slightly cheesy wordplay and subtle cleverness while setting up three important characters, and all within the five-page limit of a Warhammer monthly comic.

In conclusion, I give The Hit a 6.5 out of 10 rating as a story, and Vandal Feg a 7 out of 10 rating as a villain. Before I move onto the next review, “Helmawr’s Rump”? I know that Black Library like to keep their literature fairly clean of swears, but this is such a cheesy made up exclamation, and it doesn’t flow too well of the tongue either. Anyway, next up we have...

Yolanda

Kal awakens Scabbs from his own alcohol-induced somnia to share his most recent revelation. Two well-rewarded items of his interest share a rather striking similarity. “Outlands Annie”, leader of the Wildcats Escher gang, and noble-blooded “kidnap victim” Yolanda Catallus are one and the same. The venture starts in a bar similar to the one that featured a full half of the previous episode and Kal wit seems to have keened. The trio of the rather inspired one-liners he uses to describe Scabbs made me chuckle.

Before long the two have tracked down Yolanda and her gang in the underhive, and for the first time we’re gifted with some really awesome renderings of what the underhive looks like. Colossal columns and sewers contrast with the ruins of a long since dissolved civilisation. Indeed, it’s due to the completely unscathed supports and sanitisation systems that the wasteland of the slowly crumbling underhive is possible. After all, the rest of the hive has to remain upright and inhabited somehow. A sense of imposing awe and dread was conjured up by these ancient guardian structures and the dying architecture it had once shielded.

Where the Wildcats dwell

Kal approaches the Wildcats from afar and has Scabbs remain hidden to cover his back. He propositions Yolanda to come quietly whilst covering himself in the event of a decline by popping an undetected frag into the campfire nearby. Yolanda’s Escher response is as we’d expect, she’d rather drop dead than bow to a man. As the Escher gangers surround Kal, his grenade goes off, he delivers the knock-out punch to Yolanda and makes a hasty escape in the confusion.

Yolanda almost feels a little too atypical of her apunkalyptic character. She at least feels as an Escher ganger should, but what gives her a boost to her likeability is her anger at being captured. The threats she delivers to Kal are beyond entertaining to read. The whole sewer sequence brings out most of this story. We find out Scabbs is half-Ratskin upon entering and as such is well travelled in these parts, bringing out more of his usefulness. It’s also at this point that Kal realises that bringing Yolanda home would probably do more harm than good, and a scarred reputation would make House Catallus less likely to pay their hefty reward. On a whim, Kal decides that he’s sort of fond of Yolanda, and holding Scabbs back from executing her, leaves her to attempt her own escape. The two walk off merrily into the sewerset and leave Yolanda a little incentive to untie herself a little quicker.

So the story accumulates 7.5 out of 10. Similarly (and appropriately too), Yolanda accumulates a 7.5 out of 10 as a villain.

Tune in next time for reviews of Nemo and Redemption.

--Blackwire

First Impressions

So I planned to sit down and get the first two or four episodes of Kal Jerico covered in this first review. Instead, I found having already read the first five episodes already that I had some things to say about Kal in particular. An analogy if you will, with a short summary of Scabbs too.

The thing is, the first four episodes quite solely achieve the purpose of setting up Kal Jerico’s adversaries, and it’ll be the focal point of my reviews to not only rant and rave about the stories and background, but how good the villains are. After all, good villains are half the fun! However (!), there are a great deal of general observations and opinions I have picked up about Kal Jerico that do not fit within the boundaries of one particular episode, and these I name “First Impressions”. So here it is, my first impressions of Kal Jerico (and Scabbs).

Kal Jerico & Scabbs

Having had a deeply ingrained idea of what Kal Jerico would be like from a few pieces of art didn’t really prepare me for the surprise that my own assumptions were wrong. If you’ve read my previous piece, How I Wound Up Here, you’ll know that I’d thought Kal Jerico to have a noble air, and while there is a certain truth to this I thought it’d mean he’d be more atypically aristocratic. How wrong I was.

Kal Jerico hails from upper echelon society in Necromunda, he speaks in the well composed manner of a noble, and indeed even has somewhat cavalier attitude, but he is also a roguish bounty hunter that relishes danger and spur-of-the-moment action. He is a man of whims, fast thinking, fast money, schemes and opportunism. In short, he’s best summarised as Captain Jack Sparrow if he planned and found himself in the same situations as The Man With No Name. That’s a pretty good reason to want to read about him right there.

Ladies and gents, 'The Man With No Hat'

His fighting style likewise is something of a swashbuckler and a gunslinger. Needless to say he’s nimble, daring, stylish, and a little juvenile, but only in the same sort of ways Captain Jack is, and that’s the reason we love him.

Scabbs is quite a different case. He’s the downtrodden lower class. He’s not really an expert fighter. He’s not witty or good looking like Kal and he’s the exact opposite in style. What he does posses is valuable knowledge, a certain sensibility, and pretty unflinching loyalty to Kal Jerico. Sure, as the sidekick he fulfils the stereotypical kidnap victim role, but he also watches out for Kal and even saves his bacon on the odd occasion. It goes to show that Kal himself, while being competent enough to take on gangs by himself, is wise enough to bring along a back-up.

As a duo, the conversation between Kal and Scabbs is actually quite interesting. It’s a lot better than Bruce/Batman and Dick/Robin. And as we read through their adventures in the native ruins of Necromunda’s underhive, it adds a nice level of banter (mostly all from Kal), and adds to the background and life of this most noteworthy of hive cities.

Next time I’ll have reviews for The Hit and Yolanda, maybe Nemo and Redemption too. As a final side-note, when I opened up The Complete Kal Jerico, I was met on the front page by the very same piece of art that instilled the name Kal Jerico into my mind all those years ago. It felt somewhat right for this outing. Until next time.

--Blackwire  

How I Wound Up Here

I was first introduced to Kal Jerico in my early teens. I had just finished Dawn of War, and reading through the Inquisitor rulebook I came upon an image. “Kal Jerico, Bounty Hunter for hire, by Karl and Stefan Kopinski”. I had only just begun my exploration of the colossal background of Warhammer 40,000, and I was hooked.

The Inquisitor rulebook hails from a time when Games Workshop codices were filled cover to cover with amazing gawk-worthy artistry. Before the more formal and structured codices we have today. Moreover, it remains the most deep and insightful look at the Inquisition to be published. Because of this intake of incredible art at such a pivotal time in my life, there are many pieces of art in Inquisitor that remain amongst my favourites of all the plethora of GW artistry. They are at the forefront of what defines 40k, but of all these wonderful characters I perused through I hadn’t been able to put a name to any as soon as Kal Jerico.

There was something about this character. His clothing and hairstyle was unique. I hadn’t seen, and am yet to see, a concept for a character like his in my lifetime. He emitted a certain noble air, or so I thought. And for all these years I obsessed about this character and I’d never actually read any of the comics or novels he appeared in. He joined Quinlan Vos and Kyle Katarn in my list of heroes I’d yet to know the 'ventures of.

I can’t remember quite what spurred my curiosity, but a week or so ago I gave in. I found a collection of Warhammer Monthly issues on scribd, and there began my personal exploration of the background of Kal Jerico. It has to be said that Warhammer Monthly was of an older form of the 40k & fantasy background than I’m used to. Many of the comics look dated and not too well drawn. That being said, Karl Kopinski delivers a piece that holds together well with time. It looks like 40k as I know it now fresh with the release of 6th edition and Dark Vengeance.

Karl utilised a very strong black & white inking style, and the range of faces and – even more impressively – range of facial expressions he captures are stunning. It is stand out comic art that most big comic companies would be more than lucky to have. Unfortunately, the scribd collection only took me as far as Motherlode (Which is relatively early on), but it has left me with many things to say, and with few people to share it with I thought this would be a good opportunity to write up a series of episodic reviews.

I ordered myself The Complete Kal Jerico collection (which does as it says on the tin) and Daemonifuge (because of how highly rated it is). Two days ago they came through the post. I’ll keep you posted regularly, and I look forward to sharing my opinions as much as I hope you enjoy hearing them.

--Blackwire