Assassin's Creed: Conspiracies #1 - Titan Comics
Written by Guillaume Dorison
Art by Jean-Baptiste Hostache
Letters by Amoona Saohin
Translation by Jessica Burton
One of the things that I have always loved about Assassin's Creed is the limitless story options. There are so many interesting points in history to choose from, all of which can be tied back to the battle against the Templars and the story of the Brotherhood. Titan Comics has been telling these stories for a while now, and the next one has arrived. Let's dive into Conspiracies #1.
The story follows a man named Eddie Gorm, a dock worker in 1940s London who is just trying to run an honest business and do right by his people and his family. If you look at the year, you know that is not going to be easy. A co-worker has a proposition to keep their employees paid, so he sets up a meeting. It's this meeting that will completely change Eddie's life. It sets of a chain reaction that leads to him inside the enemy territory of World War II and the race to stop an atomic weapon. The difference here is, Eddie has a motivation that is different from those who are pushing him from behind the scenes, which will be obvious once you read the issue. Eddie gets some answers, but they are different from what everyone was expecting. A time jump and a confrontation later, that's when we find out what is really going on...or do we? The end of this book takes on odd turn, and finds us in a completely different scenario.
I realize that Assassin's Creed is a bit free flowing in it's story tellling, but this one was all over the place for me. I feel like my focus kept getting jerked from one thing to another, never really resolving the previous point. I was actually interested in the story at the very beginning, as it dealt with the impending impact of World War II on Eddie and his life at the docks. Then it sort of burned out on me when, once again, the Nazis and another one of their schemes gets dragged into the fold. To me, we have been so over saturated with stories about Hitler and the Nazis that tie into comic book properties, that it is VERY difficult to bring something new and interesting to the table. I just don't feel like this book is able to do that, and as a matter of fact, I feel that may be where this story went off of the rails. At the same time, at least the story made sense, but then readers are told to focus on yet another aspect of this story. I get that it was a red herring, but it really didn't work for me. Could I have been soured by the Nazi thing? Sure, it's possible, but the story was just too all over the place for me. I thought Eddie was a strong character with a clear motive, and his reaction to everything that was going on was very realistic. That still wasn't enough to save, what I feel, was a weak offering in an otherwise solid line of Assassin's Creed books from Titan. There really wasn't anything wrong with the art, there just wasn't much to excite me there I'm afraid. Without something to really make this book stand out, in an oversized issue I might add, I'm afraid I won't be returning for the conclusion.
RATING: DROP