Trade Rating: THE SACRIFICERS VOL. 1 is strong start

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The Sacrificers, Volume 1

Writer: Rick Remender
Artist: Max Fiumara
Colorist: Dave McCaig
Letterer: Rus Wooten
Publisher: Image Comics
Publication Date: April 2024

The world of Tomorrow is a beautiful paradise, with five families ensuring everything remains perfect – at the cost of sacrificing one child per household. The Sacrificers is one of the newest releases from Rick Remender‘s label Giant Generator as part of his three year exclusivity contract with Image Comics. Known for hit series such as Low and Deadly Class, Remender is one of the most high profile writers in the business, and at this point there’s a certain consistent greatness to his work that you can expect. This series somehow is even better than that. The first trade, collecting the first six issues of the currently ongoing series, came out in April. Featuring lush, imaginitive artwork from Max Fiumara (Four Eyes), The Sacrificers Volume 1 starts off a larger, emotional epic fantasy narrative.

The book’s setting is one of the most well-realised and interesting I’ve seen in a fantasy comic. Set in a mysterious world filled with animal like humanoids and various gods, the style of this comic blends traditional western fantasy influences with other cultures like Aztec, Japanese and Indian mythology. The result is a wholely unique style, with Fiumara especially fleshing out the world in incredibly detailed page compositions that help us understand the beings of this world and how they operate. The world of the gods, Paradise, is utterly fascinating. Equal parts dark and beautiful, the glimpses of it that you get in the first volume evoke the image of the super wealthy in our own real world combined with ideas of Mount Olympus. This contrasts greatly to Tomorrow, where grief stricken families survive in a seemingly ideal life at the cost of giving a child to the mysterious forces of Paradise. We see how people worship and praise Sacrificers, but also how people condemn them or pity them. It’s fascinating, and the whole setting feels incredibly well thought out, with minor details there if you need them but enough left vague to keep the audience guessing.

Our two protagonists are Pigeon and Soluna. Pigeon, as he’s referred to by others, is a Sacrificer, sentenced by his family to go to Paradise in order to save them. This immediately makes him quite sympathetic, but there’s more to his character than that. He’s brash, antagonist, and often seems selfish, but he’s also a child in a situation where he’s seemingly doomed. This gives him a level of nuance I didn’t expect, making him less like a perfect victim and more like a three dimensional character. Soluna is almost the opposite, starting off quite unlikeable as a spoilt child raised in the house of gods – but across the first volume, she’s greatly changed, physically and mentally, by her suffering. The creative team of this book refuses to settle for delivering to your expectations, and uses the dual protagonists as a constant way of surprising the audience. Both have moments that genuinely emotionally moved me, particularly Pigeon’s complex relationship with the only fellow Sacrificer he could potentially call a friend. These are the type of characters that you desperately want to see grow and evolve, perfect for a story like this.

To the surprise of absolutely no one reading this article, Rick Remender’s writing is fantastic. He’s developed an incredible knack for emotive, moving dialogue and narration, which both flesh out the characters and the world they’re in. His dialogue is snappy and effective, making the most out what can be very minimalist moments. There’s a certain polish to his writing that you would expect, so the twists and turns that he takes often come across as even more shocking. It would be easy for him to play on the hits, but he’s challenging himself to try and do something unique, always pushing the story in new and exciting directions. Letterer Rus Wooten compliments Remender’s work incredible well, making it prominent but never glaringly obvious or unsubtle.

Max Fiumara’s artwork is both essential to this comic and the best part about it. Every page is nothing less than beautiful; Fiumara’s page compositions are eloquent and impactful, seemingly always knowing exactly how to structure a moment and compliment Remender’s writing and story. His knack for visual and character design informs every page of this book, builds up so much of the worldbuilding, and is easy to process. It’s detailed but stylised, perfectly blending a mix of cartoon characteristics and realism to make the beings and creatures of this world believable. It’s wonderful stuff, and an absolute tour de force showing from Fiumara. Dave McCraig does incredible work as a colorist, bringing the most out of Fiumara’s artwork and creating a unique color pallette for the book that is contrasted well in moments where it needs to be. The two are working in perfect sync with each other, and completely on the same page as Rememender, and its remarkably impressive.

This is a story where character and themes are put at the forefront, but it’s not lacking on plot either. Rememender and Fiumara combine their incredible talents to make this an incredibly well balanced, interesting narrative. It twists and turns across six issues, and you’re left with the strange feeling at the end of the volume that somehow the story is still only just beginning. It’s a riveting read, flowing incredibly well in trade format, almost better than it does in single issues. This is a story epic in scope with lots of ideas, and yet it has a sense of magic and adventure inside its dark and violent world. Fantasy comics are entering a bold new era, unafraid of escaping from traditional euro-centric fantasy and moving towards new stylings. This book is a great example of that.

Overall, The Sacrificers Volume 1 begins what will surely be an epic, moving and interesting story. With a three dimensional and layered set of dual protagonists, an incredibly fascinating setting, and a knack for inciting powerful emotions in the reader, Remender and Fiumara are doing some tremendous work here. Jawdropping artwork combines with impactful, emotive writing to create something truly special. Fantasy comics are hitting a new stride, and this is one of many books leading the charge that I absolutely recommend. Whether you have never picked up a fantasy comic before, or read dozens, this series will have some wonderful surprises in store for you, and with the second trade coming out before the end of the month, there’s no better time to check it out.