Comic Review 02 // Jaegir

​Following on from the Batman Year One review come Jaegir.

Jaegir is apart of the 2000ad franchise and over on the 2000ad website you can download for free. I recommend doing this because who doesn't like free comics? Once you have read it, come here and see if your thoughts and critiques match mine, if they do drop me a comment, if they don't drop me a comment too. So let us jump in:

Jaegir

Story by: Gordon Rennie.
Art by: Simon Coleby.
Page Count: 32
Commercial Statement:

"A female war-crimes investigator in future fascist state, Kapitan-Inspector Atalia Jaegir must bring a monster down before he can murder his own family.In the universe of 2000 AD’s classic series Rogue Trooper, the endless war between the Southers and the Norts rages on countless planets. Scarred war veteran Atalia Jaegir, of the Nordland State Security Police, hunts down escaped war criminals and roots out corruption in the ranks. But her fearsome reputation will not protect her from the inhuman quarry that she is tasked with finding... An entirely new heroine leads this action-packed adventure illustrated by Simon Coleby (The Royals, Judge Dredd Year One), written by Gordon Rennie (Judge Dredd, Department of Monsterology)."

My Thoughts:

The cover is bold and striking with a limited colour palette being used. It actually reminds me a lot of World War propaganda posters, especially from the Eastern block. It screams recruitment poster and I can't help but wonder if this is the source of the design idea? Beyond the single page of credits the story starts. I find it weird that there is no introduction to the setting or background, so you are left in the dark. Considering it's a freebie to get you into the series, I expected to see more back story, If you hadn't read the above commercial fluff, you might not even realise it has links to Rogue Trooper. But I'm glad to see Simon Coleby's art work as it is stunning. Offering a gritty, muted palette, which complements the setting perfectly.
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Following a short chase scene and brutal fight we are introduced to Kapiten-Inspector Atalia Jaegir. The Heroine of the tale and an officer of the Nordland State Security Police. She seems to have an unusual past, which I can only imagine is explored in other comics. Her Dad is or was a high ranking military officer, known for his bloody handed methods. Though in this comic it is hard to tell if he is dead or still alive which is slightly annoying. Whilst her birth mother was a prisoner, after being declared a traitor over a crime we never find out about and was killed like a lab rat by a Bio-Chem team as punishment. How these two characters ever met and had a child is beyond me and leaves me with more questions than answers.

The story is quick paced and very confusing in parts. For example Jaegir is hunting for traitors and deserters, but soon becomes involved with a Colonel Inspector Nerria, an Officer of Genetic purity. After a short back and forth between the characters that lacked any real depth. Jaegir redeploys her entire team to investigate the Strigoi Gene curse (a different departments problem) just because an old flame of hers is involved (seems like an unrealistic thing to do). Then the story quickly speeds and progresses. Then through the use of flashbacks and a once again anti-climactic short fight scene we finish the story.

Verdict:

Pros: Quick read, great artwork and free.
Cons: I found the story confusing and at times hard to follow. It just felt rushed for most it, especially the final fight scene and with no background story it was hard to believe in the characters and their motives. I feel maybe if I had read the earlier releases in the series, this may have made more sense.
Final Thoughts: Strange story to make free as a way to tempt in readers. Maybe not the best tale to give away and would have loved characters that had depth.