Post-Comics Thoughts on Kal Jerico Characters

After my rather cursory insight into my opinions regarding things Kal Jerico last Monday, allow me to elaborate. Here’s where I look into each character and where I tell you what I think was done right, what went wrong, and where I’d like to see them go.  Here we go...

Kal Jerico

Since the start of the series Kal has been a character who has fluctuated in my favour. This really rubs in about Crimson Tide. How do you efficiently follow on from an episode like that? I mean Kal’s final thoughts are to go back and get the diamond-eyes of Shequel.

“Kal Jerico, underhive bounty hunter for hire” reads what I believe to be the most iconic picture of Kal Jerico. To be fair, there have been a lot more episodes covering this well than I remember. Somewhere along the lines he became less of the character I knew and loved. This briefly re-emerged in Homecoming. You see, the man in particular is defined by his boyish defiance. This can be a really likeable character trait. See Daniel Craig’s Bond for this. But as I read further and further in there seems to be something missing in the intelligent execution of this. Maybe that’s it. The further in we get, the less intelligent Jerico we get. Stories like The Delivery, Crimson Tide and even parts of The Nemo Agenda all portray Jerico as being, well, kinda predictable.

Then again, maybe most of this harboured apathy toward Jerico comes from Crimson Tide – the one story that feels like a bad Bond film. It would’ve been good if this episode hadn’t existed. I’m sure it would make transition from the comics to the books far easier. Not that Crimson Tide had a lack of potential, but it was lacking in so many departments.

For the most part, Jerico has been the savvy, roguish bounty hunter I’ve enjoyed so far. Maybe making him a little more Necromundan bounty hunter, or even re-aligning him with my comparative mix of two well-known screen heroes would be redemption enough. Those are my only wants for future Jerico adventures.

Scabbs

What a train-wreck this character has become. Not that he was particularly efficient at holding his life together before. More what I’m stabbing at is his three different character traits, one of which really clashing with the others. Scabbs is, in equal parts, a more than competent bounty hunter by his lonesome, a loyal look-out for Jerico who constantly has his back, and a whiny bitch who cowers like Scooby-Doo every time something scary comes along. So what’s off here?

It doesn’t take a genius to see it. The latter of these traits is utterly contradictory to the previous two. To be fair, when this started it was a reasonable thing. Scabbs wasn’t quite so competent, often lacking a weapon, and only ran when everyone else did. If he had a complaint, it was often valid, and you could feel like screaming at Kal for ignoring them.

Later, however, Scabbs became something to his own. He was trusted to go after targets, and often armed appropriately. For a while this trait vanished, like the comic had good character development in the wings. Every few episodes though, it re-emerged. Sometimes reasonable, other times not.

 The real offender appeared in Scabbs and Yolanda. You’d think Scabbs was insane by the multiple character disorder he was displaying. So it’s easy to see what should be cut out. No more clashing whiny bitch.

I honestly don’t know where I’d like to see this character go. Kal Jerico has already explored a good few stories with Kal and Scabbs, and some have been interesting divergences from the norm. Just keep it up, I suppose.

Vandal Feg

Vandal Feg was in interesting inclusion in the first episode. After a while though, it was appropriate he became a named henchman. Of all the villains, Vandal Feg has made a decent enough amount of appearances. He’s even had a good enough exit.

The problem with a character like this is you can easily replicate him with any number of other villains of the same archetype. I feel Kal Jerico has already done this with The Freak and Killing Time. The Freak, for one, was far more menacing, and as far as villains go, more imposing too. What Feg has that villains like The Freak doesn’t is an ability to appear just about anywhere. He’s not so hugely bulky he can’t pull of a good enough disguise.

Villains like this, though, exist to be mini-bosses. They’re hired muscle hired to take out the trash, and that’s all they are ever going to attempt to do. So count this assessment as my review for the steroid monkeys in The Freak and Killing Time too: I only ever expect them to show up for fights.

I think Feg has had a good run, ideally I’d like the writers to just let him die in Crimson Tide as it was one of the more bad-ass parts of it. Hell, one could say it was a redeeming feature. Cardinal Crimson just disappeared, along with the plot, and the fight with Feg on the sinking corpse of one gigantic spider honestly stole the show in the way Crimson should have. I think this one is a wrap. It’d honestly really disappoint me if they brought him back.

Yolanda Catallus

Originally the psychopathic feminazi punk with some of the most entertaining threats in Kal Jerico, not to mention one hell of an intimidating attitude by The Nemo Agenda, things have only gotten more confusing since she quite surprisingly teamed up with Scabbs, and then Jerico too. Of all of the plot twists emerging right outta the blue, this one comes close to Crimson Tide.

No matter what she’s in she’s always an enjoyable character. So my primary concern for future instalments is they clean up the plot holes left by her sudden and apparent change in character.

Nemo

The best of all the villains and he only appears in two stories?! The last even set him up with enough for him to easily make another appearance.

From the get-go, Nemo has only ever been an intimidating, mysterious figure. He has back story, making him one of the few characters to have some development. On top of that, he poses the largest threat to Jerico of all the villains on Necromunda. Why on earth has he not made another appearance? I’d dedicate a whole book to Nemo’s quest vendetta against Jerico. Right now he seems to be the person in the best state to order something like this done. He has agents, gadgets, he’s a frikkin’ spy master (!)...

The last person to have a grudge this big has suddenly been nullified with no explanation. At least Kal doesn’t trust her. Maybe there’s something in the wings.

Okay, simply put: BRING BACK NEMO! If he doesn’t have a major story arc in at least one of the novels I will be bitterly disappointed.

Cardinal Crimson

Here’s a character I’m dreading seeing again. He should’ve died twice now and only ever shows up to be a forward driver of the plot. What’s worse is he’s a main villain.

Why is it these comics set on Necromunda can never seem to do Redemptionists right? Oh joy, there’s a book with his name on it.

My problem with Crimson is already explained in-depth on many reviews. If they’d wanted to do him right, he could have been a brilliant villain. A psychopathic religious nut-job is always scary as all hell. See Jim Jones as one of many real life examples, or watch Seven or Red State for movie examples.

Instead we have a character that isn’t even cookie-cutter anymore. Cardinal Crimson better be a bloody good book. I can only think of what a let-down it’s going to be.

The Van Saar Juve from Code of Honour

If Bioware games have taught me anything is that you can get attached to minor characters as easily as major characters. Half of the fun of Mass Effect 2 was spending time catching up with old faces. They may have been brief encounters, but it made the universe feel complete. It was a satisfactory feeling, and it brought out the depth the game had.

This unnamed Van Saar juve is someone I’d still like to see again, even briefly. We never really see how the events of the underhive affect living for the populace. Not with any real character anyway.

Maybe it was the naivety and innocence that a character like this has in a corrupt, scum-ridden hive. He’s instantly likeable. Something about him even makes you hope he’ll be alright. Short-hand, there’s some really interesting background-building and character going to waste here. Get on it Black Library.

Heleana Jerico

Here’s a well-written character. Why? You can both sympathise with her and loathe her. She’s a terrible mother, but a good inquisitor. It makes sense. In the long run she’s doing more for humanity with the Inquisition. She’s also a rare breed of Inquisitors you can actually get on the side of.

With the death of Lord Gerontius Helmawr in Lasgun Wedding I expect to see the Jerico family making an appearance. It may even be interesting to see a couple more outside-mission moments with Kal and Heleana as family. Unlike Cardinal Crimson, I’m deeply intrigued by what might come to pass in Lasgun Wedding. First things first, I have Blood Royal to tackle....

Merelda Jerico

This tomboy sibling relation of Kal’s is quite fun in the way she likes to wind him up. Obviously she’s quite fond of him. After all, she gifts Kal with Wotan at the end of Above & Beyond. Yet again, more Jerico family values in Lasgun Wedding. I’d like that.

Mordak

The only character I had to look up the name of, but his character has remained with me. He’s another case of the Van Saar juve. Roll on Lasgun Wedding, please be good, and hopefully include even a cameo from this guy.

I think that about rounds this up. Take care, and next up will be a post on who I think could've been  an excellent live action Kal Jerico. ‘Til then.

--Blackwire 

Crimson Tide

So it's a little late. Yadda yadda. You know the routine by now. Hope y'all enjoy it anyway!

This is the last of the Kal Jerico comics. After this I've three whole novels to cover – Blood Royal, Cardinal Crimson, and Lasgun Wedding. Oh, there’s also a Warhammer Warped Visions imagining of Kal Jerico as a Warhammer Fantasy character. It is a comic, but not Kal Jerico. No, Cal Gerrico is who it is.

After this review I’ll get on reading the novels. It’s apparent to me, though, that my very in-depth method of analysis/reviewing won’t be as efficient for novels. A chapter-by-chapter review would be inane. Those only really work when I'm doing the comics because the multi-parters weren't presented as a whole story. No, they were spread out over several issues. So, I’ll be reclining to the more atypical generalised book reviews for those I think. It doesn't mean that everything will slow right down on here though. I still intend to post regularly. First things on mind while I'm reading the novels are my post-comic impressions of Kal Jerico, Scabbs and Yolanda. I may list the Kal Jerico episodes in order of favourites too. It’s still in the process of my thoughts.

Part One

Crimson Tide is truly the Kal Jerico episode that jumps the shark. It’s way out there. For the first two parts we’re re-acquainted with Wayne Reynolds art.

Anyway, the backdrop is the Sump: the toxic waters located at the deepest depths of the underhive. It frequently sees spider hunters, who seek the riches brought by the jewel-eyes of mutated giant spiders. We see one such party patrolling the Sump, when they’re ambushed by the mother of all spiders. Possibly “Old Shequeg”, who is named at the beginning (hell, I'm going to assume it is). She destroys the vessel and only one hapless hunter survives with a possible rescue in sight.

Cut to the Sump Hole and Kal is on one of his get rich quick schemes by dressing up Scabbs as a pirate captain? Wait, what? Well it’s not quite a pirate captain, but he sure looks and acts like one. Kal’s scheme is to fool gullible heavy-pursed outsiders into giving up their money on a “spider-hunting expedition” in The Sump, and they have quite the catch. It’s all pretty farfetched. Of all the story, this bit is the hardest to swallow. It’s 60’s Batman campy.

Cut back to the survivor from earlier, and we’re re-introduced to the villain we've all been expecting to see since the title. So, what happened to Cardinal Crimson? Following on from The Nemo Agenda Cardinal Crimson is filled with the spider’s venom and a thousand tiny spider eggs. He then believes his true purpose is upon him. No, the last true purpose wasn't the actual one. Like Harold Camping, Cardinal Crimson has a tendency to change his mind about the apparent “truths” shown to him.

He now thinks that Old Shequel is a manifestation of the Emperor himself, and he is her herald and prophet. After acquiring knowledge she is in the local vicinity by the survivor from earlier, he has him tossed overboard by Brother Beltane.

Whilst being entirely so out there that nobody could've seen it coming, I like it. Crimson, host of “Spider-Emperor” with spiders bursting from his pulsing flesh – I think it’s the look that does it.

Part Two

This part begins with Scabbs on a rant about Kal’s stupid ideas. Kal’s plan was to originally skirt around The Sump, avoiding any actual danger, and pretending that all the spiders were in hibernation. They’d walk out richer. However, they all end up being captured by Redemptionists, who bring them to Crimson and his base of operations.

Crimson now has a small army behind him, and within a few seconds of noticing Kal is aboard, he has him beaten. Here’s where we find out Beltane has been replaced by Vandal Feg. This affirms all the things I complained about in The Nemo Agenda. Firstly, Crimson needs an audience. Why else would he have replaced Brother Beltane? Secondly, his suddenly acquired want to kill Jerico personally was completely out of the blue. Here, Crimson has Kal right where he wants him, and doesn't kill him right away. Crimson Tide draws a few more parallels to bond films in this way.

While Crimson recaps on what we already know, Kal gets the snot beaten out of him by Feg. There’s also this line:

This is where a chance at a deep look into the psychosis of such a gang as this is missed, and we’re only left with bare-bones trying-to-be-comic villains. At least Crimson is back to his campy self from his original appearance, but as a character he never develops.

But where is Wotan in all this? We briefly saw him earlier in the flashback when they were boarded. He escaped the boarded ship and swam back to land.

Part Three

Wotan runs back to the Sump Hole and finds Yolanda. Then we have dialogue straight out of Scooby-Doo.

This is made even worse by our new artistic arrival. I said in Homecoming that Dylan Teague was my least favourite of the Kal Jerico artists. Browsing ahead I mistakenly thought the last three parts of Crimson Tide were drawn by him. So, I apologise.

What’s worse than an artist that seems to have no clue of what he’s drawing? – A less talented artist that copies him. Ladies and gents, Steve Yeowell – my actual least favourite of the Kal Jerico artists. It’s not bad enough his renditions are bland and featureless knock-offs. He also manages to make Kal Jerico himself look like an unkempt, middle-aged Viking. Oh God.

Kal and Scabbs have been imprisoned by Crimson, but in the same page they escape and garner themselves some new weapons. Racy pacing and all that and we’re right onto the swashbuckling and gunfights. There’s a pretty inventive bit where Kal dispatches a good deal of the Redemptionists by blowing a hole in one of their tin-can flamethrower backpacks. Yet again, bad artist strikes again.

Just as Kal is ready to head off, Shequel arrives. Here is Yeowell’s one redeeming quality; he does some really freaky looking eight-legged freaks, maybe the best seen in this comic series altogether.

Part Four

Spiders of all sizes swarm Crimson’s oil rig. Kal Jerico and Scabbs fight off those headed in their direction with scavenged flamethrowers. Kal improvises an escape leaving behind a volatile mix of sump toxic liquid and flamer fuel. Finally, Shequel ascends to where Crimson awaits, taking the joyous fanatic up in her mandibles.

Foreshadowing much?

Crimson serves yet again as a useless cog in the plot’s machinery, only there to forward the plot, and being dispensed of quick-smart shortly after. Shequel is caught in the earth-shaking explosion and is sent flying directly towards Kal and Scabbs who are midway through their disappearing act.

Part Five

The corpse of such a colossal spider impacting on The Sump causes a tidal wave of massive proportions. The protagonists’ makeshift raft is caught by the onslaught and Kal & Scabbs are just able to pull themselves onto Shequel’s corpse.

At that moment Kal comes face to face with Vandal Feg. Negotiating with the savage proves useless (Surpringly...) so the two fight to the death aboard a slowly sinking corpse. To make matters worse, Shequel’s children now see her dead as a free meal. Giant spiders flood the corpse.

Vandal Feg seemingly gets the upper hand. Unsurprisingly, Yolanda comes to the rescue, harpooning Vandal through the chest. Kal and Scabbs get to her boat by... running across the approaching spiders (I don’t know if this goes down well with me, if it does it’s in the same kind of way as the scene with the crabs in At World’s End does).

Kal's anti-gravity powers are at it again

We leave off with Kal typically having learnt nothing from his own folly. Rating... rating. Okay, Crimson Tide – 6.5 out of 10. It has some genuinely really enjoyable moments, and some of them are quite farfetched, and on that same note, that’s also what really brings it down. It does, however, remind itself to still be enjoyable, even while making little in the way of logical sense. What is really the major pity of this episode is the way it leaves off in the middle of nowhere.

Crimson may as well be dead, but he’s not, and I'm kind of dreading having to read a whole novel about him (knowing what the writers have churned out so far). Feg should most definitely be dead after what may well be one of Yolanda’s crowning achievements. There’s no indication here what’ll happen next, or even how it could tie into the first novel.

What I think happened was the comic was about to be pulled, so the team behind it decide to go out the way they always wanted. No consequences or any of that. Much later on a fan writes three books of what he wanted to see happen next, thus the open ending.

Well, it’s been fun so far in. I've really enjoyed finding out about this character. In honesty, I love all of the first four and wouldn't change any of it. But as the series goes on, I find myself thinking of more and more ways that I would've preferred to see episodes play out; more ways they could be improved. Still, it’s been fun, just not quite as I expected. A lot less Necromundan bounty hunter and a lot more flight of fantasy.

I’ll keep you posted until the book review for Blood Royal is ready. Hope you've had as much fun as I have.

--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 

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