BOOM! Studios release a graphic that is similar to Robin Hood which is based on a novel series of An Ember in the Ashes which is A Thief Among the Trees the graphic novel.
So here’s a story which somewhat relates to Robin hood, and it’s about three kids who are in training to become an elite military force, which makes every other war stories look more epic. The story is written by Sabaa Tahir and Nicole Andelfinger and illustrated by Sonia Liao. Sabaa is a writer who also created An Ember in the Ashes novel as I said before and two sequels which are A Torch Against the Night and A Reaper at the Gates, and as that her novels are best known as the New York Times bestsellers out there. And with Sonia Liao’s art, they both combined their story and art to create something more to have an epic fantasy graphic novel in this generation.
The front cover shows the three children are standing out there with their fighting stance as if the enemy is out there. And it was taken place in a forest in the middle of the night. Of course, when I think about the whole forest at night, I think about the Judgement stand battle against Polnareff and Abdul on Jojo part 3 or one of the islands that relate the Davy Jones Locker because it does seem to carry that atmosphere when the characters are getting off the ship on a deserted island, or maybe I thought of it at least.
From the start of the story, it goes anything for the survival of the fittest as these three kids are sailing to a deserted island on a quest to find a poison that is harvested from the skin of salamanders that is hidden somewhere in the island. Unfortunately, the island is inhabited by the enemy who is the guardians of the island, but under no coincidence, there are some other groups from the military who are also getting that poison bottle. However, the reason that the enemy group is on the island is that the poison was too very powerful, to begin with, they started to make some poisons and having some experiments of the poison to the kidnapped children by drinking it. But it’s possible if the poison administered perfectly, the victim would have died. Later on, one of the students took their own students as hostages as if they’re stabbing them in the back because you can’t trust them completely. This is has started in mind that the whole island is a battlefield because we would know who’s the mastermind of all this mess. So they cooperated, and then they get captured too easy to know that the poison is not there. To acquire the poison is not that easy because sometimes it gets, because when the enemy asks one of the children in training to kill one of the members, but frankly he hid some dozes of poison for himself. But it wasn’t worth the risk because they get backstabbed again and took the poison for themselves, so the children have to find another way to get the poison, and that is to cook it. It’s strange but nothing is similar from watching Breaking Bad just to have Walter White and Jesse Pinkman cook some crystallized meth to sell. While in this comic, the main characters are doing a home economics assignment which seems too dangerous to make the poison very nasty and legit. And after that one of the members left behind because he got infected with the poison. They regret his death because they’re the ones who caused it, and he sacrificed himself to get the poison and to get off the island while he’s fighting against the enemy. It’s tragic, but that’s how life works that in a cruel way because it’s not that easy to take a task that is too risky for the children in training.
The story is actually more of a life-changing moments but also it shows to have the fate of the children who are trying to get the poison. It really is an irony to have a member to sacrifice to save his friends to get the poison and getting off the island. All they just want is to take one of the dozes of the poison to complete their quest, but the story ended up of a twist to know who lives and who dies at the end of the day, but seriously I’ve never read such a story that includes such a terrible fate to the children to be sent on a dangerous mission which would mean life or death. The art style is more likely anyone else that I know because the characters show some interesting motion to go on a journey together, even as a team, they stick together to the end, but all I know is that the characters remind me of mine when I’m doing the character designs and end up in a process that the bodies are practical doesn’t fit out because of the study of anatomy. However, the whole scenery of the comic and the characters remind me of Avatar The Last Airbender, which would know how Aang, Katara, and Sokka traveled together to help him master the element in order to confront the Fire Nation to end the war. This story shows much less than going on a suicide mission to get the poison but at what cost? But how Sabaa Tahir wrote this book along with Sonia Liao’s art to have this as the first graphic novel is very surprising because her fantasy novels were amazing to read, to begin with, I can’t think of any other fantasy novel that turned into a graphic novel at some point. That is more like mine when I write a short story and then go on having my art to become alive is a progress through time, but it’s an amazing experience. So Thief Among the Trees is actually an amazing story who wrote by the same best selling fantasy author in the New York Times, and it’s a tragic one.
Newsdesk