Titan Comics aren’t simply satisfied with launching just the Assassins, Templars and Locus comic series. Now, they’re delving into world of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag to bring us the escapades of the brilliant Edward Kenway during the Golden Age of Piracy. How will this latest mini-series fare? Could Assassin’s Creed: Awakening #1 be a fascinating look at the life of young captain Kenway?
I feel I must point out this isn’t a new story, merely a manga adaptation from a couple of years back which has been released for the first time in English. For anyone unfamiliar with the manga style, the comic is generous enough to explain the natural reading pattern of right to left and top to bottom. It’s also worth noting that there won’t be an ounce of colour present for your perusal, with the story artwork drawn in black and white.
Edward Kenway is a young and fearless captain on a journey to provide for a better life for those he has left behind. We join the story as he is leading his shipmates into an attack on passing ships, destroying some and eventually 
embarking upon one for a spot of pillaging – like all good pirates do. Sadly, this means their own ship is left unmanned and the gunpowder reserves are targeted, which results in the whole lot going down in a blaze of glory. The action that can be distinguished during these parts is enjoyable, where Edward’s swordsmanship is well and truly on show as he decimates enemies with ease. I say distinguished because a lot of the panels are messy from my point of view.
Aside from the close-ups of Edward and other characters, the scenes depicted can get rather cluttered with massive speech bubbles and sounds effects in both English and Japanese – rather than re-draw the comic from scratch (that was never going to happen), the English has just be plastered over the top of what was already there which doesn’t help matters. Clarity isn’t a strongpoint, for I really struggled to make out what was going on for the most part and that made reading it a chore. That’s also a problem with having no colour, as there’s a huge reliance on the drawings to be good enough to thrive in their natural form.
Anyway, back to the more positive stuff. There was a moment where Edward meets a fellow survivor of the shipwreck, dressed in Assassin’s gear. Here I felt the intrigue burn through my mind as to who it could be, what’s his mission and whether, after this initial conflict, they’ll actually get along. That’s something we’ll have to wait to find out, but it gave me a real reason to want to engage with the series again for the next issue.
It’s not all about Edward though; these are simply memories being re-lived through the power of the animus under the watchful Abstergo Industries. The guinea pig in this case is Masato Yagyu, who appears oblivious to the true nature of it and believes he’s trying out a new, extremely realistic video game. It’s a short introduction that alludes to him being targeted specifically by Abstergo due to the identity of his mother – another mystery to be solved in the issues to come.
For such a big comic, coming in at 48 printed pages, you don’t get to learn an awful lot from Assassin’s Creed: Awakening #1. Apart from a few explosions, a chance meeting and a look at who’s using the animus, there’s not much going on. The only thing that’s known for sure from the first issue is that Edward Kenway is a leader and clearly has untapped potential, given his combat skills.
I do want to know where this series is heading, but the artwork is seriously holding it back at the moment.
