More (but also less) Comics Journalism?! Week of 3/20 Comics Review

Looks like I’m still writing comics reviews! Thing is, this was a light week. Light as in “I only picked up one comic” light. Luckily, that comic was an absolute banger.

Cover art by Evan Cagle for Dark Horse Comics

Dawnrunner #1 written by Ram V and Illustrated by Evan Cagle

Another Ram V book?! Blame him for writing so many bangers, not me. Pitched as a cross between Pacific Rim and Arrival, Dawnrunner hits the ground dawnrunning. The story begins with a brief summary explaining to the reader that an event has occurred in South America a century prior causing kaiju called Tetza to mysteriously spawn. The ensuing crisis has resulted in societal collapse, but thankfully(?), five corporations have taken over, running the world and organizing the counter-offensive. The new military has built a wall caging these monsters into a containment area where they are researched and hunted. We’re given that information within the first four pages along with the heavy implication that it’s only scratching the surface of what’s going on in this world. While the Tetza are seemingly impervious to all conventional weaponry, the corporations in charge have taken the only logical path and begun building giant robots called “Iron Kings” to fight the monsters. In the intervening years, monster hunting has become something of a spectator sport. New robots are given the media attention of fancy new cars and there is a leaderboard for the pilots who have killed the most Tetza which our protagonist, Anita Marr, is currently at the top of. Seeing her being escorted through a crowd of paparazzi gives the reader a clear image of the celebrity-worship and desperate need to live vicariously through the select few people that seem capable of making a difference in this bleak world. Even the corporations are susceptible to media optics as the man who appears to be the head of one of the five leading institutions points out when he shuts down a scientist attempting to research the Tetza. Creating flashy robots to beat them up simply sells better than anything as complex as trying to understand these strange creatures. The scene with the director is short but filled with insights into the lore of this alternate timeline. At this point it’s unclear how much of the world-building is flavor for the reader and how much of it is setting up plot threads for the story to pull. It is only in the last third of the book that the titular “Dawnrunner” is revealed, a cutting-edge mech that is said to be wired directly into the mind of its pilot. As the number one I.K. pilot, Anita Marr is chosen to take this prototype out for a spin. Of course there are complications when the mind link begins to barrage her with visions of an unknown person in an unclear place and time. The implications of this link and how it will affect Anita remains to be seen, but by the end of the issue there is no question that her fate will be tied to the Dawnrunner in ways she never could have expected.

This book is filled to the brim with world-building. Ram V has put a lot of thought into how human society would change following an event where giant monsters spontaneously started to appear. Brand iconography and celebrity culture wouldn’t just disappear, they’d be transposed to new targets. It’s also grim to consider that even if the ideas of nations and governments were to be burned away, capitalism will never die. The more suffering and strife that exist in the world, the more things that exist to be commodified. One of the five corporations, Cordonware, seems to be taking the lead in the war against the Tetza and its head, Andro Lestern, is the one who handpicked Anita to pilot Dawnrunner. Lestern comes off as both cynical and sinister, but it remains to be seen what his ultimate goals are. His dismissiveness towards one of his scientists and the branding-heavy press conference he gives could be signs of malicious motives or they could be a desperate attempt to survive in a broken world. 

Much like Arrival, the book shows an interest in language which pops up a few times throughout the first issue. From the language of the Tetza to the language which pilots use to control their Iron Kings, the idea of communication seems to be a driving force behind the book. All we’ve seen of the Tetza so far are grotesque monstrosities that rabidly attack anything they can find. Whether there is more to them than what we see is another one of the issue’s mysteries. 

Evan Cagle’s art is fantastic and does a ton of heavy lifting with setting the tone of the book. Simply looking at the world is enough to give the reader a fair idea of the status quo. The clusters of hastily built structures contrasted with the ruins and overgrown vegetation in the area claimed by the Tetza show a world that is held together by duct tape and gum. Both of those environments are contrasted even further with the CEO conference hosted in an opulent, golden room. This guy was also born to draw mechs. The only Iron King we see in action so far is the Dawnrunner, though we’re given a glimpse of what one of the older mechs looked like. The older one is square and bulky while the Dawnrunner is slimmer almost to the point of being gangly. Cagle is clearly taking a few design notes from Neon Genesis Evangelion and the EVAs (He’s done a fantastic print of EVA-001 called Golgotha which I’d definitely recommend looking up.) There’s an industrial, man-made quality to these mechs which makes them feel weighty when they enter into combat. The Tetza also look amazing. The first one we see looks like a mutant caterpillar and it’s easy to imagine how they’ve managed to up-end society to such an extent. As compelling as the mysteries are, the promise of these awesome mechs fighting monsters is already enough of a reason to jump on board. 

Personally, I’m a sucker for mechs and kaiju. They’ve lit up my primitive nerd-brain ever since I was little, and seeing those ideas woven into a science-fiction story filled with fascinating ideas is all I could ever want from a book. The world-building is deep and comprehensive in that classic Ram V style, but there’s so much of it that it’s still unclear what the plot of the book is going to be focusing on. Any of the threads set up in the first issue could be the story and it remains to be seen which ones, if not all of them, are followed through. I don’t seen that as a negative because I’ve read enough of Ram V’s work to know that he’s more than up to the task of following through on his promises and delivering an epic story, but I can understand it not being everyone’s cup of tea. That said, I highly recommend this issue to any sci-fi or kaiju media fans. As I mentioned, the book was pitched as Arrival meets Pacific Rim and fans of either one will find plenty to love. This is the first issue of a five-issue miniseries and from what we see here, it’s only going to get crazier.