Review: Tartarus #1
On the very first page of the Tartarus series, a space war plot starts to unfold even before the first scene of the book, with graphics reminiscent of House of X. The Djinn were a small colony of miners that found a game-changing substance called the liquid on the Plant Tartarus, and were able to shape it into some of the most powerful weapons in the galaxy. The Djinn of course sold those weapons to other planets particularly the Jurians, effectively becoming sworn enemies of the Baxxans, basically setting of a blockade war.
Tartarus is full of tricks; however, Though the main plot of Tartarus seemed to encompass a little girl and her tragically lost genealogy, the story that takes place during a relatively long period (about 15 years), but the backstory gives glimpses that serves as a frame narrative that sets the stage either for a more emphasized second narrative.
Tartarus has a decent enough opening Narrative Hook, with characters literally fighting their way out of a hell just to survive in a way that hooks the readers’ attention and makes it a page turner. Throw in a baby, and a mother’s love and you got yourself a narrative as old as time. Â The narrative ends unresolved, to draw the audience back to a future issue for the resolution.
In addition to Jack Cole’s incredibly beautiful line-work and interesting choice of colors, Cole’s art direction can be seen throughout the story in the “data pages” which are eventually fleshed out in the panels. The ‘data pages’ include information about the , Olympus Galaxy complete with a map , and amazingly detailed blueprint of the maximum security prison called the pit.
Although it’s been done before Tartarus’, Johnnie Christmas’ use of non-traditional comics storytelling techniques feel especially intriguing for the subject matter.
Final Verdict: The character design are still a work in progress, so I won’t hold that against it yet, because you can tell a lot of love went into this book: The detailed narrative; the the complex geopolitical  background; the world building; the literary techniques that keeps everything a mystery, yet makes every detail important; and most importantly, the detailed artwork makes Tarturus one of the most interesting read I had so far in this short year.
SCORE: 3 stars out of 5.
Tartarus #1 comes in two different covers: The Cover A Regular was drawn by Jack T Cole; while the Cover B Variant (Regularly priced) was drawn by Johnnie Christmas.
Writer(s): Johnnie Christmas
Artist(s): Jack Cole
Letterer: Jim Campbell
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