“The Story:
Assassin’s Creed meets 2016 Election fanfic, little steampunk flavor thrown in.
It’s kind of messy. I didn’t really understand the different factions at play. I also didn’t really understand the Trump story (there’s a character in here who is very clearly Trump). This guy is running for some sort of office, and he’s manipulating the people, but…it seems he’s manipulating them by potentially exposing that there is a family of people who have set and held the course for their “country” since its creation, sometimes subtly, sometimes by killing people. I’m not sure, but wouldn’t that whistleblower character generally be the good guy? Someone who is exposing that there is a group of people who is secretly in power, sometimes killing people? Even if he’s doing so for personal gain, the motive is questionable, but the result seems like a net positive.
Honestly, it felt like the worldbuilding was going somewhere, but then it turned into a fantasy about how Trump should’ve lost the election, and the story fizzled.
The Art:
You’ll read a lot about the art on here. It’s watercolor and pretty, but it’s not well-suited to the story. The character bodies aren’t that well defined, and action doesn’t really work, which is too bad because this is a pretty action-packed story. It’s not that the art itself is bad, it’s that the matchup of art and story don’t work here. Also, LOTS of the characters look almost exactly the same. It’s hard to tell who’s who, and there were a couple moments where someone showed up, and I was supposed to be like, “Oh, shit! It’s that dude!” But they looked so similar that I didn’t have that reaction. This MAY also be that they were written similarly and not the fault of the artist.
The creativity and fun of Luther Strode was huge, and I loved that book. This one is less creative, and although the character’s inner monologue is fun, the overall story left me pretty indifferent.”