First Knife as a trade collection is due out October 7, 2020. — **First Knife** as a trade collection is due out October 7, 2020.

By Bruno Savill De Jong — A key moment in First Knife is when the futuristic techno-organic cyborg asks Mari, a high-priestess of the Yanqui tribe who recently rebooted it online, what year it is. She replies, “Year 432, Oh Fallen Star”. Actually, it is the 33rd Century, but following several cataclysm events humanity has reverted to a more primitive state. The post-apocalypse from Mad Max has endured so long ‘civilization’ has re-emerged similar to Conan the Barbarian fantasy, the future becoming the past. Chicago has devolved into clay-brick area of Shikka-Go, overtaken from the Yanqui tribe by the warring Hudsoni slavers. Both these tribes take sci-fi futurism as religion, the dominant Hudsoni believe gigantic extra-terrestrial ‘Devas’ as Gods that have blessed them. The Yanqui believe they are demons, and that this cyborg is “Hesukristos”, who has arisen as their salvation.

Most of this lore is organically woven into the story by Simon Roy and Daniel Bensen. First Knife dumps readers straight into the new North American biome, all the characters operating under such beliefs and factions as a given. It’s a similar, if more action-packed, approach as an Ursula K. le Guin sci-fi novel, plunging readers within an alien environment until you eventually acclimatize to it. It can be a bumpy adjustment, but once in the right head-space First Knife proves a thoroughly detailed and richly rewarding read. Plus for those (like me) interested in ultra-detailed background mythology, First Knife provides liner notes after each chapter explaining the tribes’ histories, their folk-songs, their area’s bio-diversity and more. First Knife has a rapid plot too – with Hesukristos ordering the Yanqui and captive Hudsoni to find his fellow dormant cyborg-platoon – but it’s the new world which is central here. But it is not merely a backdrop, but one which heavily informs the characters, so that even those fairly single-minded cannot help but be interesting extensions of their environment. First Knife himself for instance, a Hudsoni chieftain allied with the Devas but captured by Hesukristos, has a dedicated faith in his overlords, but his mind starts to turn after the Devas use Mari (a blasphemer) as their “herald” (through a kind of neural-beam projection) to communicate with them. First Knife manages to tell engaging stories of human motivations through the established lore itself.

Such a world is brought to life by the immaculate artwork of Artyom Trakhanov. His knotty and expressive pencils bring forth the Mayan and Aztec inspired tripes, rendering them with imagination and detail. Trakhanov shows their clutter, the sweat and bandages from living in barren wastelands and the ceremonial robes and adornments each tribe carries with them. It makes the world feel more fully realized. Trakhanov’s illustrations also contain a certain Manga influence, with expressions and cartoonish exclamations that breathe life to the characters between their hardened beliefs. First Knife is fairly serious, but it is never dour or stiff, and the humor comes from the scrappy artwork and the bouncy design layouts of First Knife. This is true from precisely timed oval-paneled character reactions to the lettering of Hassan Ostmane-Elhaou, who makes overlapping dialogue or sound-effects ring with boundless energy.

The battle sequences, whether its bloody hand-to-hand combat or awesome energy-blasts between Hesukristos and the Devas, are also made palpable. Jason Wordie helps emphasize them with his vibrant color-scheme, going from sanguine browns and yellows for the desert to more expressionistic purples and reds during fights. He also allows the terraformed ruins of Sentta-Lu (Gateway Arch just visible) to shine as luscious and clear. First Knife does not judge this new world. Despite its title (which was renamed from Protector), First Knife is an ensemble piece about this future-landscape, capturing its intense and imaginative psychedelic glory.

It’s this perspective which ultimately makes First Knife so fascinating. Traditionally Hesukristos would be our surrogate-character, having knowledge about our suburban “profligate age” and speaking with a more recognizable candor. The human characters, by contrast, are ignorant of the world before them. Yet Hesukristos is not our protagonist, and through its towering techno-organic face-less design, it is more ‘alien’ than the human followers. Throughout First Knife, Hesukristos’ sarcastic attitude subtly erodes into full-on bitterness at this future, muttering how these “savages don’t even know how far they’ve fallen”. Yet First Knife eventually offers a fairly optimistic approach to humanity’s existence, one which justifies and enrichens its imaginative world-building and makes it ripe for re-reads. Although it may appear the world has spun out of control, humanity has simply endured into another version of itself. Heuskristos may wish to find his fellow cyborg-soldiers, to resurrect a long extinct past and restore things to the way they were. But the world cannot truly go back. It can only spin forward in its own odd circuitous way.

First Knife Trade Collection REVIEW

First Knife Trade Collection
Writer: Simon Roy and Daniel Bensen
Artist: Artyom Trakhanov
Colorist: Jason Wordie
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $16.99
From SIMON ROY (PROPHET), Sideways Award-winning author DANIEL M. BENSEN (Junction), ARTYOM TRAKHANOV (UNDERTOW), JASON WORDIE (GOD COUNTRY), and HASSAN OTSMANE-ELHAOU (Red Sonja) comes a sci-fi adventure equal parts Conan the Barbarian, Nausicaä, and Zardoz.In the hot ruins of far-future North America, a slave stumbles across an ancient and bloody power. A conqueror bargains with godlike beings. A soldier tries to bring back his lost world. As the full moon approaches, the remaining humans of Earth find themselves standing between the forces that once nearly destroyed it.
Release Date: October 2020
Buy It Digitally: First Knife

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Bruno Savill De Jong is a recent undergraduate of English and freelance writer on films and comics, living in London. His infrequent comics-blog is Panels are Windows and semi-frequent Twitter is BrunoSavillDeJo.