For me, whenever I pick up a new comic it’s either going to spark my interest or I simply will dislike it and probably won’t continue the series. This book is something I definitely want to continue reading! What we have is a book called Carmen, written by Mike Speakman and Aharon Claridge with illustration credit going to Matt Kyme and Black Wilkie. Before even beginning the book, we get an added bonus, a prologue which I always enjoy especially when they are appropriate in this book’s situation rather than giving us some backstory in a later issue of the series.
Sent on a mission to rescue children from being forced to join the militia, soldier Brody Sinclair is pinned down and calls for air support before having his throat slit from an enemy. The narration is told by Brody himself and is continued after his apparent death. As the prologue concludes we dive into the beginning of the actual story. King-Dome Come Industries, the front for what looks to be a crooked empire of some kind. A man named Mr. King is informed that a body is currently being operated on. More specifically, it is the body of Brody Sinclair. Someone (or something) is after his brain. As the surgeons prepare to open his skull up on the operating table, it becomes apparent that the brain has been damaged. Mr. King is given the news and he does not take it lightly. Apparently someone is after Brody’s memories. The only true way to unlock them is by finding someone who was close with Brody when he was alive. King orders the brain to be analyzed at a lab for some clues. A discovery is made…Brody’s girlfriend. She appears in almost every image that the brain releases upon request.
Government officials are sent to Brody’s girlfriend’s house where things quickly become very unstable. Refusing to comply with the agents, she tries to escape. During the struggle, one of the agents is killed by another agent for trying to take advantage of the girl. He makes it very clear that she is now the property of Mr. King. We are then taken to Kansas- a place called Far Away Ranch to be exact. A man who goes by the name of Lucas knocks on the front door, asking for his father. The door creaks open with an older man with whiskers standing in the doorway concluding the comic with the words, “I thought you were dead.” Leaving us on a cliffhanger, this comic is most definitely worth a read!
The characters are already being developed thoroughly and I feel that this world we are being presented is much more than already meets the eye.There’s a beautiful front cover of what looks to be the American Flag paved into a broken road or monument, and the interior artwork is amazing too! Each character has multiple volumes of shades and colours that enhance a pop-out effect, which doesn’t allow the cleverly written dialogue to be the only thing that the reader is going to remember. We have a smart team here from Australia…they are going to surely make Carmen a title worthy of being on shelves in comic stores everywhere!
