TEAR US APART #1 (OF 4)
Story: Jay Baruschel & Van Jensen
Art: Alessandro Micelli
Dark Horse, $4.99
The hands on the front belong to two kids -- it's difficult to tell ages here, but I'd say 14-15 -- who are members of a bloodthirsty cult of children in the Canadian wilderness dedicated to wiping out most of humanity. All of the kids, of varying ages, are being trained to be ruthless assassins, to have no empathy and to kill as many people as possible. Their training is borderline lethal.
So naturally, two of them fall in love. That doesn't go over so big in a murder cult. The guy in charge (and the only adult we see) is a fanatic called Paternoster ("Our Father" in Latin), who is mostly beard, robes and crazy eyes. He doesn't kill the two right away: He exiles them from the compound, and sends out all the other kids to kill them.
This is complicated by a touch of fantasy; there's a psychic power called the Pneuma that Paternoster has in spades, and some of the other kids have to varying degrees. Paternoster essentially blows a kid to bits with "The Scorpion's Sting," which sort of looks like the Five Finger Death Punch in Kill Bill. As you might guess, one of our two lovers also has this power, which she is just beginning to explore.
The premise is really well executed. You hate and fear Paternoster almost as much as the kids do right away, and the sense of helplessness is palpable. Some of the kids, of course, get into the bullying aspect of this ethos, especially when it comes to their weaker fellows. We've seem elements of this in books like Deadly Class, but it's far more brutal here.
As you'd also probably guess, another of the romantic pair has a bete noir, an older kid who we see beat him almost to death in single combat. We are told this has happened three times before. This older kid is likely to be the Lt. Gerard to our couple's Fugitive.
That is, if this becomes a chase book. The afterword (by co-writer Van Jensen) indicates the kids will encounter a lot of early '90s pop culture, so it's probable our lovers will be pursued through the malls and dance clubs of the time. And speaking of the early '90s, the book itself is named after "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division.
The art is -- weirdly, given the subject matter -- a little cartoony. I usually don't like cartoony, but it works here, using body language to accentuate how sad the kids are and exaggeration to show how terrifying Paternoster is. It suits the story as well or better than a more realistic approach. Sadly, there is no preview.
I might grow tired of that, but I haven't so far and I'm looking forward to more.
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