Carbon Grey is a rock. A powerful rock like the Cosmic Cube or whatever magical artifact you might know. Now that the Kaiser is dead, a political struggle is in effect. General Wolf wants the queen dead but he can't kill her because in her belly is the new heir to the throne, but he promises her that after the birth she is as good as dead. The Grey Sisters are still fugitives and Anna and Eva encounter Howard a soldier Giselle saved, Eva kills Howard and leaves him as a message for the general. Giselle helps Elliot and Dina fight the enforcing army of the Red Baron, she kicks ass and is able to save the day. Later on Anna finds Giselle on a train and they fight and since they are on a military train (covinient) with a big cannon, Anna takes advantage of this and destroys the train. In this issue we discover that the Kaiser's death was not really Giselle's fault. The Kaiser took Giselle's handgun and blew his own brains out with it.
Carbon Grey is a beautiful book and is fast gaining notice because of it. Image comics is on a roll, throwing hit after hit with enough variety for every comic book fan out there. Carbon Grey, is a fantasy book fill with inspired world war two designs. It also have a bit of pulp elements throw into the mix, their secondary characters of Elliot Peppers and Dina Cummings are an example of that. Its a big cast of characters with political intrigue and over the top action that might satisfy all those fans who crave blood in their comics.
Every issue of Carbon Grey, starts with a child like recap of the story so far. It is a good idea from the creative team to add this because the story of Carbon Grey tends to be a bit complex. The story is interesting but the writer needs to keep in mind that he is introducing this world to new audiences. The writer seems to think that the reader knows who all the characters are. The introduction of General Wolf and the Queen were not favorable to readers. We spend more time with Howard, a minor character that gets kill in this issue, than with the other major characters. The time we spend with Howard could have been used for the introduction of the other main characters. Also there is a lack of back story for the world in general. Is it all military, do dragons or mystical creatures live here? There's a strong mystical element to the world, but it's not full explored.
We only know the story of the Grey Sisters. That's okay, they are the main characters after all but this is a fantasy world, the more detail we have on the setting the more vivid the story will play. Think Lord Of The Rings or Star Wars, fans of these properties know the settings of these worlds just as good as real cities; Hoth, Middle Earth are as vivid as the characters that live in them. The setting is one of the most essential things in fantasy based stories. You might notice that in the plot, things tend to be too convenient for example in this issue, Anna finds Giselle in a train that has a big freaking cannon; Anna uses this cannon to destroy the train. If there is a cannon in the train is it possible that this is a military train? Giselle is a fugitive, she should be hiding from the military. This is a convenient storytelling device, since it looks like a lazy approach to the story.
The art is georgeus. This time around we see interesting angles, with first person view and more kinetic action scenes. We see a great improvement in the sequential art and a more daring style to each page. Everything is great until the last few pages when the storytelling gets a bit blurry. You see its a bit hard to see where the cannon from the train appears and how Anna fires it. But other than that, the art delivers impressive imagery.
The book could benefit from a recap with profile pictures of the characters and with some bonus features on the world of Carbon Grey. But If you dig great art, this is the book for you. The writing needs to fix a couple of things but it manages to be entertaining and the whole comic is worth the wait for the next issue.
Overall Score - 6.8/10
*Satisfactory - A title that's not for everyone, has a few stand out moments. Maybe if you have a few extra bucks it's worth picking it up.*
For more on Carbon Grey, take a look at our review for the second issue.