Far Cry: Rite of Passage #1

Far Cry: Rite of Passage #1

Dark Horse Comics 2021

Written by Bryan Edward Hill

Illustrated by Geraldo Borges

Coloured by Michael Atiyeh

Lettered by Richard Starkings & Jimmy Betancourt

President Antón Castillo's only son, Diego, has just turned thirteen, but this birthday is more than a celebration—it's a rite of passage. By telling his son about Vaas Montenegro's inner struggles, Antón wishes to teach Diego the importance of harnessing the power of chaos. Features fan-favorite villains from Far Cry 3, Far Cry 4, and Far Cry 5!

For someone who doesn’t play video games this is a great introductory issue to the series. I connected with this right away as we see Diego being greeted by his father on the patio and we see the discussion of his being thirteen that day and it is a rite of passage into manhood. I connect with this because the same holds true in the Jewish faith and at thirteen I had my Bar Mitzvah which was my rite of passage into manhood. Granted I don’t have a dictator style father who is to be feared as much as he is to be respected. This made me want to see what this was going to be about and I have to say I wasn’t disappointed in the slightest.

I really like the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented extremely well. The character development is dynamite. How we see the dialogue alongside the character interactions and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter help to really make them more like real people. The pacing that we see is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story, introducing us to the characters and invites us into this world we’re fascinated by how we become engaged in the possibilities of what might come.

I am enjoying the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story begin to emerge and take shape. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is so well achieved. I am really rather impressed with how we see this story take shape and where it is actually going to go versus where our minds think it will go will be an interesting aspect to see as the issues roll out.

I am a fan of the interiors here. The linework is fantastic and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to bring out the detail work is extremely nice to see. I do like that backgrounds are so important to how we see the story and how they work within the composition of the panels to bring us depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is impressive. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show an extremely talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is fabulous. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a stellar eye for how to utilise colour effectively. Also that we see this level of colour gradation is phenomenal to me.

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While I know where I want to see where this is going to go I cannot wait to see where Bryan is going to take this. I’m also intrigued how this story within a story fits into the bigger picture and just who Diego’s mother is and where she fits into this story as well is something I cannot wait to see. Of course once again I have my theory but whether that’s accurate or not remains to be seen but the fact that I’ve become so engaged in this already and I’m so invested in where this is going is a testament to the quality of work by these creators.