Trade Review #8--Reaver

About a week ago, I asked the owner of my LCS Chops Comics if he'd put together a package of mystery titles for me as I had nearly run out of things to read. As I was unboxing his recommendations the thing that stuck out to me the most was the single title I knew absolutely nothing about.  The front and back pages of the trade were interesting to me, especially seeing 1-2 word descriptions of each of the main characters.  Knowing that my guy Jason has not done me wrong yet, I was excited to jump into the world of...

Reaver TPB Vol 1. (Image, Skybound)
By: Justin Jordan, Rebekah Isaacs, and Alex Guimaraes

Reaver takes place on the continent of Madaras, in the midst of what appears to be a rebellion against some form of Imperial powers.  But within this rebellion, there are also multiple fractures between groups of different lands.  In the political science realm, we'd call these coinciding cleavages.  There are multiple things that divide the land of Madaras, but no matter how you slice it, your sub-groups end up the same, making it fairly difficult to find commonality.  

This book follows from the perspective of the imperial forces attempting to take down a dark power who is increasing in terror and intensity in a place called "the Anvil."  To take down their new foe, it follows the "dirty half-dozen" format of team building.  Six prisoners are tasked with breaking into the Anvil.  Our cast of characters include a bad-ass indestructible berserker, a sorcerer and his muscle, a coward, the turn-coaty diplomat, and my favorite...the skin eater.  Each individual is selected for their own reason.  Be it their skillset, their race/ethnicity, their knowledge of territory etc.

Once they leave the prison (they have to break out to create plausible deniability) we get to see each member of the team's skillset in action.  The trade was hard to put down (95% because I enjoyed it, 5% I don't think it had breaks between books) and there is action with each page turn.  I think the book was a little slow to start, but not to the plot's detriment, we just had to meet everyone in a quick period and then watch the odd dynamics of the group flesh themselves out.  This book is gritty, at times it is emotional as you watch each individual work through this suicidal mission.  I'm still in awe of the final 10 pages of the book (or what would be most of book 6) because of several rather unpredictable turns as the storming of the Anvil unfolds.

The first arc concluded in December to some great success and reviews.  A couple of the books were rush-reordered for second printings.  This trade was released in February, with book 7 released in early-march before the universe shutdown.  I am intrigued enough by the events of the first arc to come back for more, once I get to physically reenter my LCS.  But if you like fantasy, oddball teams, and bloody bloody conflict, then you should definitely pick this up!