Writer: Anne Toole
Artist: Elmer Damaso
Colorist: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Publisher: Titan Comics
Release Date: March 2022
Aloy and Erend are on the hunt for a killer and discuss some important history of Meridian, mainly Erend’s sister Ersa. The story goes back and forth between the present with Aloy and Erend tracking the killer, to the Ersa’s story in the past and her fights with the Mad Sun King. For the most part, the story is well paced and moves along nicely. There is rarely a dull moment to be had between battles and machinations. Dialog is decent, but nothing to write home about. While the story is overall pretty good, the ending is a bit abrupt. Within a page or two, Erend changes his whole attitude toward an event. It’s supposed to be a cathartic release, but just comes off as unrealistic. The story is very worth reading however to get a more in depth look at this world and its characters.
Art-wise, this book is very well done. Page layouts are easy to follow and understand and help set the appropriate pacing for different instances in the story. The colors are fantastic and really create a nice tone and good delineation from past to present. Action scenes are well staged and appropriately exciting. The largest drawback with the art, which is a minor critique, is that the environments tend to be very empty and somewhat simplistic. This could just be due to any time restraints the book had. Character models are very well done, though expressions could maybe be pushed a bit more. Again, that’s a somewhat subjective take, and not something most readers will be bothered by. The machine creatures look spot on from the game, and though not featured heavily, are highly effective when they do make an appearance.
This comic is definitely worth a read, even if you’re not familiar with Horizon Zero Dawn as it’s a nice, self-contained story. It will be nice to see if this team does more in this universe with future books.
Story: 8/10
Artwork: 9/10
Overall Score: 8.5/10
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