Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
Written by Pirata Hermosa
The Reconcilers is a new graphic novel created by Erik Jensen, R. Emery Bright, and Jens Pilegaard. The artwork character design is done by Shepherd Hendrix and the cover art is by Neal Adams. All of these gentlemen are seasoned veterans with decent credentials in comics and writing in their backgrounds covering everything from Batman to the X-Men.
In the future there will be no governments. Everything will be run by corporations. And after the great Corporate Wars threatened to plunge the world into chaos, war of any kind will be abolished. All disputes will be resolved through reconciliation and overseen by Executive Outcome.
Sean Hexhammer was once a corporate man, but when his wife and son were killed during the wars, he took his anger and desire for his own death and channeled it into reconciliation. But after battling for years and not finding any solace, Hexhammer retreated to Hansen Lunar Engineering, a small mining operation on the moon.
Several years passed as he toiled away brooding over the loss of his family until one day his mining group stumbled upon the richest deposit of Liberty Ore ever found. While it sounded like a great blessing for a nearly broke mining company to post a claim on the most powerful resource in existence, it also came with one huge problem. MaximillianSokor, the most powerful and ruthless corporate CEO, wanted the ore for his company and decided to take it.
But since war was abolished there was only one way to resolve the dispute over who owned the rights to the ore. Suddenly Hexhammer found himself having to once again take up the mantle of being a reconciler. Not only did he have to get himself back into shape, but had to take a group of rag-tag miners and change them into reconcilers as well. And even if he could get this motley crew into fighting shape, would they be able to take on an opposing group who had better armor, better weapons, and were genetically enhanced and modified for combat. He had no idea, but he wasn’t going down without a fight.
The first thing you notice about the novel is the amazing cover art. Just the cover alone will make you want to pick it up and give it a read. It’s sharp, clean and pretty bad-ass. The inner artwork isn’t quite the same and comes across as duller and not as well-defined. It’s not bad, but it’s certainly not the same.
There is a bit of backstory in this first issue, but it’s not difficult to follow along as you learn about Hexhammer’s past and what happened to his family. The pacing works pretty good as you can slowly feel the intensity starting to build until it all comes to a head during the reconciliation. The Executive Outcome, which resembles a religious cult, is an interesting twist to the story and gives it a creepy overtone as you realize that they have the ultimate say in people’s lives.
The storyline is a fresh new idea that has a lot of potential. Most people live in fear and poverty while heads of corporations live above the law in decadent lavish lifestyles. It’s not yet clear whether Hexhammer is going to be the type of hero destined to start a revolution and take down the corporations or just wreak a lot of havoc on those who caused the death of his family. Either way, it looks like his adventures are going to be worth following.
