Birthright #1

by Joshua Williamson, Andrei Bressan & Adriano Lucas

After having been teased with a six page preview in the back of various Image comics in the past weeks, Birthright debuted this week. If you thought those previews were enough to hook you then this whole issue will instantly make you a fan. After a young boy named Mikey goes missing, the rest of his family has to deal with his disappearance and the attention it attracts. A few years later a man dressed as a medieval warrior claims that he is actually Mikey.

Joshua Williamson is starting to become a master at writing an addicting first issue. This first issue of Birthright was incredibly well paced and really got right into the story. Even though this seems like a fantasy story there are still some of Williamson’s familiar horror elements hidden in there too. It was also nice that this whole issue was just dialogue driven. No narration, no inner-dialogue, no commentary, just characters talking.

It wasn’t just the great script that made Birthright such an incredible read. The art by co-creator and artist Andrei Bressan and colorist Adriano Lucas, made Birthright‘s world seem so real. Being a modern day story with both fantasy and horror elements intertwined could be hard to pin down the right art style. However they nailed it with this book, everything looked incredibly grounded. Keeping the feeling and look of modern day earth but still provided haunting overtones that make the reader feel uneasy. Just the couple of pages that showed the fantasy world alone were absolutely stunning.

There were plenty of surprises and twists in this first issue alone that by the last page, it had won me over and totally consumed me. It’ll be exciting to see where the story will go because there is plenty of room to develop in the world of Birthright.