No taxation without representation.

Brian K. Wood gives us his take on the American Revolution and gives us a tale as deep and interesting as we expect from him.  Much like his work on The Massive, Wood excels in finding the balance between violence and action and the characters he crafts that can find the openings in that action for dialogue, where words can win the day better than bullets.

In this first issue, we are given a glimpse of the life of the types of men and farmers that made up the typical revolutionary soldier.  Frontiersmen who gave all they had every day to the land they claimed, who toiled for their daily survival and that of their family, who found it hard to accept when the hand of government came to claim “what they owed.”  The disgruntlement of these men forms the basis of the revolution, and their trust in each other leads to a brotherhood that will unite the disparate folks who will march against the crown.

Andrea Mutti’s style works incredibly well with the story, a world where the lines of right and wrong are often blurred, where people become more than themselves, they become expressions of values attributed to their cause.  Though everything is crisp and clean, there’s a touch of a soft focus to the panels that gives us at once a sense of nostalgia and impressionism to elevate these characters to their values, to make each person stalwart or fiery, to overlay that characterization over the person they are.

This is a really interesting take on not only the world we think we know, but as an allegory to today’s issues.  Where do the lines define us, who really has the right to decide? And, what is more important than determining your own path?  Making an argument for neither, Woods and Mutti bring history to the forefront in a way much more interesting than the classroom ever did.

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