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"In a small town with a declining population, a mysterious robot falls from the sky."
An alien world is how we open the first issue of Alethia and we quickly see that the Queen who is giving birth to yet another generation of workers is feeling far from fulfilled from the cycle she finds herself in. The constant production of newborns to try and keep the dwindling population afloat sees her yearning for a new Queen to appear but the arrival a robot that's fallen from the sky brings with it the chance for her to reflect on what her true options are.
As the population try to make sense of what their gods are trying to tell them, what this new arrival means for their day-to-day life and sustain the hope of a new Queen alive the status quo has definitely been unsettled but it's not quite clear which way things will go until the closing pages of this opening issue......and what a set of closing pages it is.
At first, I wasn't quite sure what to make of the whole situation that was being portrayed in the book but creator Kristina Stipetic was well aware that she was drawing me in before catching me off-guard by the subtle tale of empowerment amid a seemingly unchangeable life direction. The quirky aliens and their single-mindedness were nicely unsettled by the new arrival and Kristina managed to hold back on filling the pages with too much dialogue and instead opted for letting the alien world breathe.
Between her well controlled plot and a stunning level of depth in the art & colouring, this felt like a slick introduction to a new series AND new creator all at the same time. Slow burning in places for sure but the payoff is well worth it when you see how well things are balanced out in how it reads and looks.
You can read Alethia #1 on the Comichaus App now, or find out more over on the Comichaus Marketplace
G-Man
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