As I dig into my Kickstarter pile again, I ran across a favorite artist of mine, Edwin Arroza. He’s been doing several indie comics over the last few years, and I always appreciated his style. This time, he came on board Century House, a series from Skeletal Press.

Written by Ryan Cummins, the story is set in alternate-history of the United States, where superheroes and magic are part of daily life, and Nazism rose prior to World War 1. The story begins with a naïve group of Nazi separatists who release Cain, an evil and vicious immortal criminal, from his icy prison, thinking they can control him. They were wrong. When Mathias Graham, a member of the security council, discovers Cain has escaped and the trail of dead bodies he leaves in his wake, he heads to the superhero who put Cain in prison to begin with: Gideon Winter. Gideon is retired and prefers to use his technological prowess (and money) to handle problems like Cain; however, Mathias convinces him that a new team of heroes is necessary to stop him.

This is a solid first issue with terrific world building. It has the usual “creation of the team” storyline, but with a bad guy like Cain, I’m wondering how they stopped him in the first place. (Hopefully, future issues will tell us more.)  As I mentioned earlier, I am a fan of Arroza’s work, and I enjoyed his interesting panel layouts and the art and coloring which seem to jump out at you, immersing you in this world. Cummins has kept the dialogue tight, giving us just enough without being overly expositional. We’re given a brief introduction to the new team, but it’s enough to tell us that these characters might be at loggerheads with each other in the future.

I have no doubt that the story will delve into the nature of evil as it progresses, something we all need to be reminded of every once in a while.  

I look forward to the next issue.

Creative Team: Ryan Cummins (writer), Edwin J. Arroza (artist), Justin Birch (letterer)
Publisher: Skeletal Press
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