The Assassin’s Creed franchise is taking over the universe. We have the games, a film coming soon, books, clothing and most recently comics. The Last Descendants – Locus is issue one of a new series of stories set around the time of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate – the Victorian era. These are connected with a young adult novel releasing around the same time, all set to give publisher Titan Comics another hit.
If you’ve been involved in any of the above Assassin’s multi platform packages, you’d know about the millennia year old war between the Templars and the order of the Assassins, and how the quest for an ancient artifact called the apple of Eden has kept them warring so they can possess these powerful alien weapons. In this series the action takes place in a certain time in history, Victorian times, as well as in the modern age. In the modern age a descendant will control the memories of their ancestor in a machine called the Animus, which takes them back to the said era
We find out that a piece of the alien tech “Eden” has helped the president of the United States get into the White House. Our hero, Tommy Greyling, is on the search for information and clues to the locations on the artifact, which then leads into a fight with a female assassin who has both wit and a mean throwing knife. The world then turns to the modern period with a nice transition in the panels between the two timelines. We are introduced to the descendant of the hero, Tommy Greyling, coming out of the animus machine. This is Sean who is a young adult in a wheelchair and that story is one that interests me the most as the series 
progresses. It promises to bring out themes and the dilemmas around the balance of his reality and escaping into another world with endless physical possibilities. The third act takes us into London town and a chase on the rooftops, which ends with the introduction of Henry Green and Evie Frye – one half of the sibling stars from the most recent Assassin’s game.
This first episode has a very slow first half, an interesting set-up in the second half and an exciting final section. The first half set in New York is all about exposition and setting up the premise. Maybe it would have been more interesting to ease the premise throughout the narrative, as it became too wordy too quickly – visually it was very static to begin the first chapter of a new series with. But things get better and by the end of this first issue I was raring to get onto the next one to see where they might take this story.
Issue #1 sees a mix of very well drawn nicely colourful characters and brilliant fight scene sequences that really fizz off the page. Then there are some not very interesting scenes in rooms that need to bring a different perspective on the narrative, so it doesn’t become too predictable on the eye. I really enjoyed the 
rooftop scene with its shadows, shading and action. Also, as I mentioned above, some really good use of a transition sequence between the time zones and Sean coming out of the machine.
Overall I’m looking forward to this series to see what’s going to happen next. There are a few characters that really shine and I’m eager to see what direction the makers will take their journey forward. You don’t need knowledge of the games to read this comic as the world is interesting and unique. Pacing issues is something that the makers need to be wary of, so the reader doesn’t get too bogged down so much in the lore.
Assassin’s Creed Last Descendants – Locus: Issue #1 is a good start with lots of promise for this Victorian adventure.
