Reborn #1 Review

Death is but a Door

Written by: Mark Millar

Pencils by: Greg Capullo

Inks by: Jonathan Glapion

Colors by: Fco Plascencia

Letters by: Nate Piekos

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: 10/12/16

Review by: Christian Faulds

*Non spoilers and Score at the bottom*

So I literally picked this up because of Greg Capullo being on the art. That is all the information I took with me when I picked it up at my local comic book store (shoutout to Comic Book University in Indy). Now let me tell you what this comic was all about. 

This issue starts off telling us that we are in Minneapolis, 2002. Then out off nowhere, this guy sipping coffee gets sniped right through his fucking neck. Pretty visceral scene and let me tell you the art right here was amazing. It really brought out how violent this death was. 

Then we see everyone in the coffee house freak out and start running out of there (can’t blame them, I would not want to be shot by a sniper). The next page we see an old man in the sniper's crosshairs and the sniper says “ Just don’t know where to run do you?” At which point, the old man gets blown away and then wakes up in a grassy area with a attractive, badass women telling him she has no time to explain and reveals a giant (orc?) army. 

We then go to where this old woman tells her granddaughter how the people in her life had died. Turns out that the old man who got shot was her husband, and her Dad died in a steel plant and her mother died of a heart attack. She then reveals how her best friend died with dignity and never lost faith. 

These scenes really give you a case of the feels because you get the feeling that this is last words of a dying woman trying to figure out how to face her imminent and coming death.  She asks her nurse as she looks through her photobook “Do you think any of us ever make a difference?” The nurse gives her kind and reassuring words that I won’t repeat because I honestly can’t do them justice. 

A nurse then finds the old woman passed out in her bathroom. They start wheeling her bed in trying to save her life. Then we get a montage of her memories. Which going through this again for this review still gives me feels, I don’t deal with death well. These scenes are really touching as we really get a sense of who this woman was and how she went about living. The montage stops as we see her on her deathbed as she cries out and we see her thoughts as she dies. We see darkness as her last thought is “..Like a light being switched off.” 

Then we see all of her memories start to shatter and we see a woman kneeling under all the memories as they shatter. She then gets up looks at her gloved hand then tries to walk and plaintively asks “hello?” A ship appears shining a light on her and there is wreckage all around her. If this hadn’t already brought me in with the story and art so far I would have been a bit confused but the art and story have been so good I didn’t bat an eye. She gets grabbed by a guy in a cool helm and her tells her to get down as the ship fires. He fires back at the ship and tells her to stay down and he’ll handle this. 

Dragons, demons, and others are in this fight and BA with a cool helm axe a fucking dragon. The old woman who is now this young woman is trying to figure out what is going on takes off her helm and asks “WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?” A demon turns around and says “My God” and then starts getting the hell out of dodge saying the protectors here. The evil bad guy army leaves which makes the woman question what is going on. All the normal people start asking is it really her is it really Bonnie. At which point Bonnie asks who are you and how do you know my name? Then BA with the cool helm takes off said helm and goes “How do you think?” Bonnie then cries because it's her dad and this still brings some tears to my eyes because it’s a sweet moment. The issue then ends with Bonnie’s dad saying “let’s go see the others.” 

Bits and Pieces:

This was a great first issue. It got me hooked in. Honestly, I haven’t read a first issue this good ever I think. I have great hope for this series and can not wait to read more. Definitely check this out and put it on your pull list. 

9.9/10