Warhammer 40,000: Damnation Crusade #1

By: Kurt Amacker
Review Date: Tuesday, December 26, 2006

This first issue of Warhammer 40,000: Damnation Crusade spins out of the long-running tabletop miniature game of the same name. Having only played Warhammer once, several years ago, I can’t comment upon its faithfulness to the game. However, like the tabletop system, this comic dwells solely in the “big guns and monsters” subgenre of science fiction – Aliens with bigger beasties and heavier firepower. In this issue, we see the forcible recruitment of Raclaw to the Black Templars – a Chapter of the Adeptust Astartes – the Space Marines. After fighting several of his own countrymen by order of the Templars, the Chapter selects him from the melee for his superior performance. Alternately, we see some of the Chapter’s scientists reviving a giant, sentient robot called Tankred for the massive Kasiroth Offensive. By the end of this issue, we know that the sh-t will hit the fan next month.

If this issue stands as any indication, this series will feel like another Conan or Lord of the Rings-type affair set in space. We’ve seen it before, most notably in the pages of Heavy Metal. But, you can think The Chronicles of Riddick if you need further illustration. Unfortunately, this issue offers little beyond some well-illustrated combat scenes. The storytelling rarely rises above a fill-in-the-blank sci-fi action affair. I harbor little doubt that Raclaw will rise through the ranks of the Black Templars, moving from bedraggled outsider to respected warrior in the ranks of the Adeptust Astartes. Maybe the series writers will prove me wrong, but this issue hasn’t suggested as much.

Still, Damnation Crusade features some respectable artwork by Lui Antonio, colored by J.M. Ringuet. It looks appropriately dirty and grimy – like every locale has suffered a nearby volcanic eruption, filling the air with a dark haze of ash and soot. Given the subject matter, it feels better suited for a series of posters than a narrative. Still, this isn’t a bad looking book. It just makes me wish its story didn’t feel deliberately culled from so many 1980s sci-fi action movies and back issues of Heavy Metal, minus the excessive nudity. Overall, there’s nothing terribly original here. But still, it’s a passable entry in an entertaining genre.

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