I’ve read a fair few of the Assassin’s Creed comics that are available – The Fall and The Chain for one – and while most of them are a worthy read from both a comic book fan point of view and for fans of the Creed, Bloodstone Vol.1 from Titan Comics has sadly left me confused rather than excited for the next entry in this potential-filled premise. That said, there is definitely fun to be had in exploring the Vietnam war from the perspective of the Assassin-Templar war.
You follow Tomo, the youngest member of the Japanese cell of assassins (an era and geography which is still horrendously ignored by the mainline video games), whose mother was brutally murdered in front of him by a sleeper Templar agent.
Tomo spends his waking hours trying to find his mother’s murderer when he comes across a Switzerland-based cell of assassins who aren’t what they seem. You explore the memories of Aleksei Gavrani, who was part of the infamous Vietnam squad Bloodstone.
It could be the case that I am getting old, and that in my old age and pessimism I have got distracted whilst reading Bloodstone Vol.1, and that would explain why I was so confused by the many characters we are introduced to in its fifty pages. Or it could be the case that there are far too many characters to keep track of in this story, making me consistently turn back pages to understand exactly what’s going on to whom and why.
Don’t get me wrong, there is the expected fun and joy to be had reading through Assassin’s Creed Bloodstone Vol.1 with the typical Creed spin on historical events and lore exploration which has always kept the comics based on the franchise interesting. Not only that, but the moral dilemmas explored in these particular scenarios deepen the excitement of this exploration.
But aside from the potential this story shows in its complexities and characters, putting aside the obvious quality of writing it shows on occasions, it buckles under its own weight and cannot afford to give the reader the pace and explanations they need in order to fully grasp what is happening.
You’ll likely get the general gist of what’s going on, but there are far too many characters in such a short space of material to connect the dots for why people are doing what to whom and when. Here, ‘when’ is the most important complication since I was getting confused as to when we were in the ‘present day’ and when we were in the ’70s.
Nevertheless I am excited to see what Titan bring to the market with Assassin’s Creed Bloodstone Vol.2, if only because the opening chapter of this comic has done a decent job in making me invested in the story and characters. I’m just hoping for more than a recap at the beginning of Vol.2.
You can grab AC Bloodstone Vol.1 from Amazon right now, either in Hardback or Kindle form.
