Vermilion Edge #1 is a comic written by Alan McAlindon & Steven Paris with art by Guilherme Raffide and colors by Victor Uchda. When a transport is attacked Red and his crew are called upon to investigate. This is a science fiction futuristic comic with intense aliens, space travel, heavy violence, and a large cast. The main man here is Red, he is the leader of a special forces team and their ship is called The Cardinal. His crew members are: June Pulse, Hex, Raven, and a few others. They all have unique personalities and combat styles. This story begins with Red receiving a call from Commander River where he talks about his daughter Elena coming back home for the first time in years. Their conversation is interrupted by a new wormhole being detected and Elena’s transport going missing. Commander River then desperately implores Red to go after his daughter. This takes place in a futuristic world where humans use wormholes to travel long distances. The violence here can be very gruesome and there is heavy gore. This moves at a steady overall pace with more fast bits than slow and an Alien-like science fiction tone. There are almost equal parts very dramatic and brutally violent moments. The dialogue is witty with military-style jokes and back-and-forth with a notable amount of technical talk. There is only one word-heavy page. This is an exciting and intriguing debut issue for a futuristic series with a large cast, looming alien threats, and a somewhat new, but very powerful, way to travel.

            The art here is drawn in a detailed modern style with notable lighting and shading. Most of the colors here are dark in tone and they tend to be black, red, of grey/silver. For scenery we have a dry rocky landscape with many mountains and caves. The primary location is Red’s ship, The Cardinal. It has all the screens, large windows, and cockpits you’d expect. There are also other spaceships and planets visited. Backgrounds almost always show the actual surroundings which helps the different scenes seem more alive. The expression level here is a bit below average as most of the looks we see sly smiles and tough guy hardness. Emotions shown here are usually either aggressive or fearful. Faces have an above-average amount of detail and usually show the different expressions clearly. The different creatures can look a bit like variations of more famous ones like Alien and Predator. Weapons on display tend to be in either the laser sword or laser gun category. There are some hard-hits and gruesome attacks that lead to gore(limb separation, goring) and a significant amount of blood. Action scenes are multiple pages in length with a standard flow, changing perspectives, and panels/pages focused on major moments.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like futuristic science fiction stories that star a large cast and features various aliens, space travel, and strong violence then this is for you.

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

R. Violence, blood, gore, gruesomeness.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Then we need to move before it’s too late.”

 

Physical Link: https://vermilionedge.com/product/vermilion-edge-1-cvr-a/

Digital Link: https://vermilionedge.com/product/vermilion-edge-1-digital-edition/

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vermilionedge/vermilion-edge-1/description

 

***** I received this review copy for free. *****

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 32

Violent Pages: 10, for 31% 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 – 3

“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 – 3

“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 – 1

“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.”