Mirror's Edge Exordium

I talk about the 1st issue of Mirror's Edge Exordium from Dark Horse.

I am a lucky guy. Let me tell you why. An innocuous box arrived at my door this morning which, once opened, revealed a selection of new comic books and a nerdy t-shirt. Turns out my good friend R0ot had gotten me signed up to the most excellent Comic Block subscription as a birthday present. It's given me a chance to read some books I would never normally pick up myself including today's one. Mirror's Edge Exordium is the prequel to the upcoming game Mirror's Edge Catalyst (released in Spring of next year).

Exordium is penned by Christopher Emgard who is actually one of the creative staff at Dice and is behind the direction of the story of Mirror's Edge on the games side ensuring a very cohesive story for fans of the game and comic alike. The artwork is by storyboard illustrator for Dice, Mattias Haggstrom, and illustrator Robert Sammelin, who use sharp detailing for the characters and embracing cityscapes for the environments, clearly it draws heavily from game design but it transfers to the canvass brilliantly.

The comic itself is very well written and a big shout out also should go to the colouring, muted tones throughout through which the detailing in character's faces is even more pronounced. If games had facial expressions like these characters I would have had a lot less griping about the upcoming Halo game...

The story itself is set in a dystopian cityscape where 'runners' rebel against the powers that be, often finding work acting as industrial intermediaries in a time when moving resources with a governing body ever-vigilant can be difficult.

I enjoyed reading it thoroughly and didn't find it difficult in the slightest to buy into the characters and the storyline even though I've never played the game. Having the game staff create the comic seems like a typical gimmick to promote a new game but in this case they've produced something very readable and aesthetically very well developed.

Thanks again to R0ot :-)
Please visit his Facebook/Twitch pages and give him some love.

-J