Born of Blood #1: Retail Edition is a comic written by Dolan with Joe Corallo, and illustrated by Sebastian Gonzalez with colors by Lucas Urritia. A Spartan princess goes from the lap of luxury to the battlefield with a lot happening in-between. This is a tale filled with violence, fighting, and bleeding. Things aren’t peaceful here. Our leading lady is Giaris, daughter of King Cleomenes. She is a determined woman who has the gumption to power through what gets in her way. Helping her along the way is Mor, a large man who excels at combat and is very tough. The plot is almost entirely a montage but it is capped on both ends with some perspective-widening moments and important scenes. The action here is bloody and hard-hitting with gore playing a part. The pacing is steady and with the way panels are broken up it should read smoothly. There is an intense atmosphere that persists throughout most of this story. The dialogue here is a bit proper with not much being said overall. No wordy pages here. This is great intro for a series full of violence with a headstrong woman at the helm.

            The art here uses dark tones and it drawn in a style that will bring to mind the artwork seen on Greek pottery from long ago. There aren’t many colors here either; we have blacks, browns, and red. While we do get short glimpses of the countryside and some buildings, the majority of this story takes place in a dungeon. It looks like your average dungeon with stone walls, skeletons chained up, and a severe lack of light. Mor is usually stone-faced but Giaris goes through emotions like toilet paper. We’ll see her showcase a number of different looks which wordlessly assist in telling her story. Faces are drawn well enough to clearly convey emotions and that are covered in details both big and small. The weapons used are mostly swords and knives befitting the time. The action scenes are easy to follow with the occasional gap between moments that’ll leave you questioning what happened in the middle. This is very bloody and body parts aren’t as connected as they should be. The people in this comic who partake in combat tend to only where the bare minimum amount of clothes.

            The differences between this issue and the Kickstarter Edition is that this one has two less pages and a lot of dialogue has been added, changed, or removed. The art seems to be darker but that might just be because I’m reading a physical copy vs. a digital one.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like stories taking place in ancient times starring a woman with lots of violence this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Violence, gore.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“As of this moon rise, you are an adult.”

 

Physical Link: https://mercpublishing.com/products/2022-born-of-blood-1-cover-a-tim-virgil-ltd-300?_pos=4&_sid=518a1f77f&_ss=r

Digital Link: https://mercpublishing.com/products/born-of-blood-1-pdf-download?_pos=1&_sid=518a1f77f&_ss=r

Unboxing Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09BtikvJjwY

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 22

Violent Pages: 11, for 50% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 4

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 5

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 4

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 2

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”