From writer Ash Maczko and artist Ashley Witter (Team Ash), comes the groundbreaking comic series Squarriors from Devil’s Due Entertainment. Check out my review of season 2 (Summer) issue 3 right here!
Since the demise of humanity, the remaining animal life on the planet have become intelligent. The sudden spark of rational thought creates an internal struggle for these creatures; instinct versus reason. Animals of all species find themselves creating tribes and societies-each with their own beliefs, leaders, laws, and even armies. Some are working to be civilized while others embrace the barbaric ways of their ancestors.
I love Squarriors but I’d be remiss not to mention the fact that issue 1 (of this second 4 issue volume of SUMMER) came out in May of 2016, with issue 2 hitting in January of 2017. Issue 3 is finally here – but we are now in March of 2018. That’s a long wait for three issues. We’ve now hit three years – three issues. Last year, creators Ash Maczko and Ashley Witter worked on a card game based on this very franchise and it looks freaking awesome (check it out HERE). It’s something that they’ve been working on for a long ass time and it’s finally being shipped to comic shops and fans everywhere who helped make the Kickstarter a success. I don’t play card games, but if I did – I’d probably put down Hearthstone (and my phone) to give this one a shot.
That being said — three issues of a four-issue comic series coming out in three years – is a lot of waiting. I forgot pretty much everything there was about this current story arc, so I had to go back and re-read issues 1 and 2 to get a handle on what the hell was going on. Team Ash did put some little reminders in issue 3 to ping our brains though as to who was who and what was what — much appreciated. I liked that. Bad release schedule aside, Squarriors is masterful. Witter’s art continues to blow me away and Maczko’s writing is superb. They have been building up to a massive conflict over the course of not just these three issues, but the four before it in the SPRING mini-series. So that’s seven chapters of wild and crazy skirmishes, but issue four looks like it may bring the chaos in a big way. This moment has been a long time comin’ and I’ve been around since the beginning to see this play out.
The assassin Ghost has been stalking the Tin Kin compound and we finally get to see the little furry badass unleash one of the most brutal and satisfying kills of the series thus far. I loved it and I love that character even though he’s on the side of The Maw. That’s always been a cool aspect of this series though – I’m not so sure one side is necessarily good or evil… This is a complex and deep story that Team Ash has been plotting for a long time now and I like that. This issue also does a great job with character building as opposed to just world building – I felt like I was learning more and more about some of the personalities of these creatures and just in time for probably some of them to die…
There’s been this post apocalyptic story that kicks off every issue in Squarriors as well and the few pages dedicated to that in issue 3 are my favourite of the series so far. It’s equal parts sad and fascinating. Now I REALLY need to know more about what the hell happened to the homo sapiens and I’m not sure I’m able to wait forever to find out. Maczko has been sprinkling this mystery onto Squarriors fans for years and I honestly wouldn’t mind an entire issue dedicated to that storyline one day. There’s one more chapter left in SUMMER and it looks like it’s going to be nasty. Team Ash may have taken a long time to deliver the goods but they’re always worth the wait.
Rating: [star rating=”4″]