Warlords of Appalachia #1 –
Boom! Studios
Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Illustrated by Jonas Scharf
Colors by Doug Garbark
Letters by Jim Campbell
Cover by Massimo Carnevale & Robert Sammelin
The world seems very divided right now. The current political climate has people more at odds than I can recall in my recent memory. Given that, nothing can match the division of the American Civil War. Sure that was a different time, and a different world, but imagine if that were to happen today. What of a state decided to secede from the union and decide to become it’s own nation? Boom! Studios imagines such a world in Warlords of Appalachia from Phillip Kennedy Johnson.
Kentucky has decided to secede from the Union for religious freedom, but has seemingly lost what was billed as the Second Civil War as the story begins. Over the back story from a radio talk show host, we see what Kentucky has become. We also follow a man named Kade Mercer who is trying to survive in this world with his family and the people who have decided to stay in Kentucky. As odd as it seems to imagine, the military is also occupying Kentucky in this story. There are also some mysterious people that we learn about in this story that may play a role in future issues. There are also a few relationships that we learn about that call certainly loyalties into question, but I won’t go into spoiler territory here. As the tension builds, a callback from early in the issue (and what turns out to be a big mistake), leads to a major turn in the story. We also find out that a character, who seemed like an after thought at the time, is actually far more important than expected. What we are left with in the final panel really amps you up for the rest of the upcoming issues.
On the surface, you think that this is a story that you may have seen or read before. The difference here is the layers of the story that Johnson was able to provide in just one issue. He establishes the setting, gives the main characters depth that makes you invested in them quickly and adds enough mystery to give the reader something to think about going forward. The action isn’t forced, and is actually given proper build-up to make it matter when it does happen. You also get that sense of thinking that things did not have to happen the way that they did, and that is another thing that sets this story apart. Credit also goes to the team of Scharf and Garbark, who depict a gritty and war torn Kentucky, but also make it feel like a place that those who stay would want to call home. This is yet another in a series of stories from Boom! recently that have much more edge and intensity, giving the publisher a nice balance in their current story telling. Warlords of Appalachia will make you want to return to Kentucky to see what happens next, for sure.
RATING: PULL