The Untamed: Sinner’s Prayer #1, the first issue of the World of Asunda, is a work of dark mythology and beauty! It introduces the character of Niobe who would later co-star in the limited series; The Untamed: Killing Floor, Niobe: She is Life, and Niobe: She is Death! The first issue has a cover by interior artist, Peter Berting with a coins falling and then a red ourtline of a clawed hand reaching down. Inside it is a gate and below it is the hooded fgiure of The Stranger with a sword. There is a map of Asunda and a two page frontpiece that has a white robed boatman with a long paddle like a staff and a passenger in black, moving through starry skies on a boat like a gnarled white tree. Then, there is a prologue by writer Sebastian A. Jones, this are all additions to the trade paperback.
The Stranger has been searching ten years through a colorless hell to find her, whom he finds at a “mist-filled room”, she was married to this killer and her love is what cursed her. I’m fascinated by Dante’s Inferno part of the The Divine Comedy. It hasn’t been adapted to film and there is only a video game, Dante’s Inferno (2010), with a animated adaptation of the game, Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010). So this reminds me of Beatrice, the symbol of his love. She was attempting to save him in life, but was killed before the birth of her second child. He goes nameless until his redemptionWe and her name is Jenna. Then, we get The Stranger’s theme composed by Jens Englebecht and Jones which was in the back of the comic book. A bittersweet beginning that really separates this work from other fantasy comic books.
The story is by Jones with art by Peter Bergting and layouts by Darrell May. Bergting created his own fantasy comic with The Portent (2006). May is the layout artist for Defiant: The Story of Robert Smalls. A splash page of a starry sky with the narration of The Stranger who says he’s going home. A cavern is lit by the ghostly boatman. The boatman is in flowing white robes asks him where he is going and The Stranger responds the town of Oasis. Then, they reach the shore, and he is asked how long was he given and The Stranger says seven days. I love mythology recast in new forms. In this case, Charon the Boatman from Greek myths, one of the most eerie depictions was in 1981’s Clash of the Titans. The Stranger walks into a ravine, flanked by cliffs with dark men with white banners, the Tribe of the Dying Tree. They watch “between two worlds”, guardians that must drive off the living trying to enter the underworld. We see their sacred tree, leafless.
Then, The Stranger reaches the remains of a home in the desert, he opens the door, and sees the figurine of a girl and a tear falls. Powerful. It makes me think of the moment in John Carter (2012) when he finds his wife has died. A somber figure of The Stranger, he sees the names of his wife and daughter, Ashani. He walks on, there is a bird that flies overhead like it did at the ravine, and he reaches the town at night with a crescent moon. He stands with the gate bathed in red and he thinks the gates “pass judgement upon all who enter her haven.” He walks into Oassis in what is “Day One.” All of the windows and doors slam shut. Several villagde thugs face him at the town square with one figure digging the ground with a dagger. The moments glaring in red are like samurai manga. They pull out a man whom they hang! We see one of the brutes is a grachukk, bald with fangs like an orc. A woman runs out, but she is slapped by the grachukk!
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