Imperium 5+6

Toyo Harada will create Utopia…he just needs the right weapons first!

The most powerful man in the world has collected an assembly of monsters, killers, and super-villains…and now he’s set his sights on the last asset his team needs: the renegade scientist called Broken Angel. The only thing standing in his way — an army of enhanced soldiers…guarding a top-secret, highly fortified facility… deep underwater! The impossible heist begins here!

Writer:
Joshua Dysart
Penciler:
Doug Braithwaite
Colours:Brain Reber
Ulises Arreola
Letterer:
Dave Shart
Publisher:
Valiant Entertainment

After a few issues of slow build up, Imperium kicks into high gear again, whilst still doing enough to make its approach feel fresh. For the most part it's all in the construction. Issue five has us following a thoroughly unlikeable person for the first half, before pulling the curtain back to reveal what we really witnessed, giving a new meaning to the term 'stealth attack'.

To be honest, having read a lot of superhero fiction in my life, I was dreading what was to come when the fight scenes started in issue six. True to their source, there were plenty of cliched fighting scenes as people become pinned down, gunplay becomes rampant and the monsters on Harada's side start ripping apart those they encounter.

Despite that, it's the small little things that get sprinkled in made it worth reading and added some variety to things. For one, the fighting itself is almost made secondary to smaller character bits. It plays into the appeal of the series to me so far – every aspect of Harada's plan is, whilst sound as a whole, made up on components that are tinderboxes, ready to burn the whole down enterprise to embers. The tension generated by this helps play into the aim of the series as a whole – that those who saved the world and created paradise were the worst of the worst.

What surprised me more was that for a moment we see Harada's facade slip, yet the other characters treat this reveal as something they knew already. Knowing the series it will be brought back later- but for something as potentially surprising as that reveal was, it felt odd that not much attention was paid to it.

The artwork itself seemed to suffer a bit compared to the last two issues. Maybe it is fatigue on behalf of the artist, but proportions and the level of detail on characters and objects seemed a little more cartoony that what I've seen from the series so far. It's still good, but not quite as impressive as the work used in issue two for example, which managed to convey extra tones to the characters and story that are purely visual.

Would I say it's worth jumping on at this part of the series? Yes. Issue five, with a cold open that still manages to explain the majority of the relevant plot before unfurling into something else completely, is a good introduction and I'm not sure if you would have missed much bar an extended 'getting the team together' prologue.

If this is your jumping on point, revisit issue two for GraveDog's story and the stellar artwork. Otherwise, it's a brave new world you'll be entering. Like Harda himself, it seems like Imperium will give you a chance, but if you aren't smart enough to take it there's no time to wait for stragglers.

Cover image courtesy of Valiant Entertainment

Imperium is available from Valiant.

Geek-o-Rama received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review. All thoughts, comments and opinions are those of the individual reviewer.