The American Revolutionary War might come off as a strange time and place in which to situate a comic book story.  Comics after all deal with larger than life characters and the Revolutionary War is a time period which is equally full of real life characters that have become larger than their own deeds. Much has been made of the lives of the Founding Fathers that they themselves have assumed an almost mythical status to many Americans.  This issue is proof though that there is no need to fear such legendary ground provided that the story is well conceived and with strong characters.

That is indeed the case here as the main characters are introduced as a group of rebels fighting in New Hampshire against the British who are trying to take away the rights to their farmlands.  It might seem like an odd setting where much of the iconography of these wars are located elsewhere (though not too far away) but it indeed fits, giving enough distance from the iconic figures that those introduced here can stand on their own.  There are some cliched moments perhaps sprinkled throughout this first chapter of the story, but even those add to the breadth and depth of the characters, easy to relate to even though the story is less than 30 pages in.

The end result is a compact and interesting story that manages to touch on some common iconography while also establishing a little bit of its own.  It serves as a reminder that even in such a time and place that imagination opens the doors to new perspectives on old material.  In a certain sense this is even an almost simplistic story, but it succeeds where it needs to in order to pull the reader in and promises more excitement to come in the following issues.

Story: Brian Wood  Art: Andrea Mutti
Story: 8.5  Art: 8.5  Overall: 8.5   Recommendation: Buy

Dark Horse provided Graphic Policy with a free copy for review.