| Title: | Graveyard of Empires |
| Contributors: | Mark Sable Paul Azaceta |
| Publisher: | Image Comics |
| Issue #: | 1 |
| Year: | 2011 |
| Pages: | 32 Pages |
| Age Rating: | 18 (Language, Violence, Gore, Nudity, Sexuality, Drugs, Adult Themes) |
| Story Grade: | B |
| Art Grade: | B |
Graveyard of Empires #1 does a great job showing just how mundane life can be at a remote operating base without boring the crap out of you. It briefly covers tattoos, personal hygiene, toilet habits, male bonding (wrestling for entertainment), fitness, weapon maintenance, drug use and even masterbation; the gambit of male boredom and day to day life is covered, but not to the point of being bored.
What makes this portrayal of the mundane work is that Mark Sable shows us just how quick things can go from boring to "holy-shit" in the blink of an eye. It is refreshing to read something that doesn't have all the soldiers as potential Rambo-like super soldiers killing everything in their path all the time. Sable makes the story refreshingly human.
More importantly, in the midst of covering all of this boredom, Sable tackles cultural differences and the challenges of being a soldier in a foreign country. Sadly, this paints some of the Marines in the book as truly ignorant extremists in their own right, but I am sure they exist and these personalities aren't the focus of the book, more like a bit of background noise that gets the volume cranked up from time to time. The writing is bold, telling an in your face story that echoes with what some people might consider elements of truth. That is the good of the book.
Sadly, the all of these interesting story points are dumped into high level overarching plot that is tired and boring. A classic telling of military war crimes, renegades and insubordination. A new C.O. wants to engage the local community more, the troops don't want to risk their lives doing that type of activity in an environment where everyone has to be considered a potential human I.E.D. This is where most of the conflict in the book is sourced from and sadly, it drags the book down a bit.
But in the end, the book is nothing more than a countdown to the second book which will unveil the rising of the dead. That's right, zombies. It is suggested that the rising of the dead could be the reason so many Empires have fallen in Afghanistan.
The artwork by Paul Azaceta is unremarkable in style, but content is outstanding. The style isn't bad, just that the quality of the art has nothing that pops out as outstanding. The drawings are a little too unclean in their lines for my tastes and the colors are all muted, which fits the desert motif and darkened tones which does not fit the story as of yet or the desert motif. This isn't my favorite style by any means but where Azaceta lacks in style, he makes up for in so many other areas.
One of the things that Paul Azaceta does deserve credit for is his knack for being subtle and still driving the message home. In dealing with difficult subjects like masterbation and drug use, you really have to be observant in the panels to know what is really happening. Azaceta doesn't make it completely obvious. Facial expressions are subdued a little and things aren't simply shoved in your face for the most part. It can require some interpretation, which makes you think and in case you are wondering... thinking is good.
Azaceta should also be congratulated on his ability to tear down the toughest son-of-bitch in the battlefield to show him as the mere mortal he truly is; by simply drawing him sitting in a crapper. In one simple, speechless panel he can take the coldest, toughest marine and remind us that he has to shit like everyone else. The message was clear. He is merely human.
All in all, I grade this book a solid B. The story is good, with the only one weak point being in the overall story arc, but Sable really nailed the individual plot elements and does a great job developing so many individual characters in one book. All of the personality elements covered in this one book really work to bring the characters to life. And Azaceta, although I am not fan of his particular art style in the book, is outstanding in the way he accentuated the plot points and humanizing the characters even more, showing not only character strengths, but their weaknesses as well.
I may actually consider picking up Issue #2 just to see where this heads.
Until next time... don't get caught on Z-Day with your pants down.
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