About three months ago I wrote about a new addition to the Assassin’s Creed franchise in the form of a short comic book series. The Fall, which consists of 3 issues, goes over the life of Daniel Cross and his ancestor, Nikolai Orleov, who is an assassin. Shock and surprise!
Even though I enjoyed the comic, I didn’t enjoy how difficult it was to find a copy in my city. Thankfully some good friends, who were well aware of my manhunt, found a copy and bought it for me.
While the issue itself wasn’t long, it managed to cover a lot. We see that Abstergo is still up to their old tricks, placing assassins in the Animus to locate Pieces of Eden. Cross, who we first see in a therapist’s office, is a little rough around the edges. Since we see Cross in the late 90’s, he has a grunge look about him and reminds me of the late Layne Staley of Alice in Chains.
If you’ve played the Assassin’s Creed games, especially Brotherhood, you would’ve seen that Desmond is starting to experience a “bleeding” of realities between the present world and that of his ancestors. Cross is experiencing the same problem, but because he is unaware of what it is, he is prescribed court-ordered anti-psychotics. Clearly, an incident happened in his past and I wonder if it will ever be revealed.
When Orleov enters the picture, we see him riding on a horse alongside a locomotive that has Tsar Alexander III and his family. The Tsar has a Piece of Eden in the form of a staff, and Orleov is determined to take it. Things don’t go according to plan, and all of this is taking place while Cross is at a bar and experiencing hallucinations. After making a scene, Cross is taken and put into a car with others who inform him that he is an assassin.
Like I said earlier, the first issue covers a lot, however I fail to see how a rich story can be covered and completed in the next two issues. There is a lot of backstory for Cross and Orleov that can be told, and there is also the future of Cross that should be explored. I’m also unsure as to how Orleov will manage to take the Piece of Eden from the Tsar in such a short period of time, but I suppose it could be easily solved by flashing forward.
The art style, while different from what we’ve seen in the games, fits in with the rest of the Assassin’s Creed universe. You can also tell that a lot of work went in to making sure that a proper portrayal of Russia took place. There is a lot of detail, a lot of historical accuracy, and when you combine all of that, it makes for a damn good read.
Karl Kerschl, Cameron Stewart, and Nadine Thomas should all be proud of their work. In 22 pages they managed to capture the essence of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed and bring the story to comic book form. The first issue was exciting, enthralling, and made me wanting more. I’ll definitely be picking up issue #2 that was released in December, and I can’t wait for issue #3 to hit store shelves this February.
