Deus Ex: Children’s Crusade #1 –
Titan Comics
Written by Alex Irvine
Art by John Aggs
Colors by Mat Lopes
Letters by Rob Steen
It’s time to question humanity as you know it. Titan Comics brings the the video game world of Deus Ex to comics. The story actually takes place before the events of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, which won’t be out until August of this year. So what happens when one of the Augs joins an elite team of humans?
The story follows Adam Jensen, who is a part of an Interpol counter-terrorism force known as Task Force 29. One problem, Jensen is an Aug and is now hunting his own kind. If you’re familiar with the story up to this point, humans don’t exactly trust those who have been augmented after an Aug Incident that turned into a massive attack. So clearly, the fellow members of Task Force 29 don’t exactly welcome Jensen with open arms. In this first issue, they go after a group of Augs who have kidnapped a bunch of children of government officials. Seems like a typical rescue mission, only the media is watching their every move. You get the impression that there is more mistrust of the media than the Augs by the Task Force. At some point during the mission, they make a discovery that makes this much more complicated than originally planned. When the issue ends it’s hard to know who to believe, which leads to some serious questions going forward.
There are definitely a lot of trust issues here driving the story forward. The media was a constant background voice in the issue and clearly have their own agenda. There was a ton of action sure, but it’s the tension and lack of trust that really drove the story forward for me. Irvine manages to break the trope of video game comics by not relying strictly on action to make an entertaining story. Even in the story time of the first issue, he even gives each member of Task Force 29 their own identity. Another thing I loved was, at the beginning and end of the issue, there were propaganda posters that really set the tone for the world that the story is based in. The art by Aggs was solid and extremely consistent throughout. Deus Ex fans will not be disappointed, but even if you haven’t played the game, this comic is definitely brings you in and gets you invested in the story. Don’t walk by this one at your local comic shop and not pick up the first issue.
RATING: PULL / BUY