Assassin’s Creed – the comic series

In tandem with the release of Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, Titan Comics has embarked on a new soft-cover comic series set in the well-worn conflict between the Knights Templar and the Brotherhood. The story team is comprised of Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery, drawn by artist Neil Edwards and coloured by Ivan Nunes. Priced at $3.99USD and on comic book stands everywhere, I got a chance to sit down with the first Assassin’s Creed comic (in digital form).

Struggling to get by in the concrete jungle, protagonist Charlotte de la Cruz (aka Char) has shown proficiency with an online VR game sold by Abstergo and inadvertently draws attention to herself. Her online gaming has netted her some unexpected friends in the Brotherhood though, and after an attempt on her life she decides to side with the assassins and see how far down the rabbit hole goes as she delves into her ancestral past.

The time period shared in the first comic begins to explore the Salem Witch hunts. While the pacing felt too quick to identify with Char as anything more your typical comic-book-perfect looking woman with an iron will and geek cred, the art and set pieces make me curious to see where this takes us. The story arc suggests this plot line is covered in five parts.

As far as a creation story goes, the beginning is not much different than Assassin’s Creed 2 complete with similar power struggles and personality clashes within Charlotte’s new team. That’s not to say that I expect a lot from a comic that weighs in at 32 pages cover-to-cover; the content may simply feel familiar due to the source material.  I hope that these characters become more than just sets of opposing ideals and archetypes. The world within Assassin’s Creed has so many potential story-lines that can challenge and intrigue us, and it’d be a pity if that world became unpalatable because the content fails to make any impact. 

Char certainly takes issue with the ancestor she’s trying to connect with, which creates an interesting narrative as she’s forced to execute actions that go completely against her makeup.

Given that I have reviewed the digital version, I can’t comment on print or binding quality, however the art is on par for what you would expect from a quality comic. What I can say for certain is if you are looking for more Assassin’s Creed with a strong female protagonist, this certainly fits the bill. With the second comic coming out November 5th, I look forward to where Titan Comics takes us.