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Category: Writing and Poetry
 RUIN 1 of 3Writer: Tom Pinchuk
Cover and Art: Mike Gallagher
Published by Alterna Comics
It has been ten years since Lord Carnus, his three generals, and their armies have decimated Earth, turning cities to ash, filling the oceans with blood, and annihilating most of the human populace. Those that have survived have become the slaves of their tyrannical masters. For Lord Carnus, with nothing on the planet left to conquer, boredom has set in, and a sense that without anyone to hold power over, power has almost become meaningless. But out of the night sky, comes a cybernetic organism that crashes in Africa. Its name is Black Zero, and he was supposed to be the savior of the planet. Though he has come far too late to bring any sense of normalcy back to the planet, his pre-programmed list of priorities still drive him to stop Carnus and his generals. His first target is General Romm, who has turned his own men against each other to alleviate his own boredom.
Threats against humanity and the world, and the lone hero who stops the menace have long been used in every form of storytelling medium to thematically spark within the reader to prove that the individual is important, and that one person can make a difference. But what if that one individual that would have made a difference comes too late? That is the ironic twist in the three-issue limited series Ruin.
Ruin is co-created by current Boston University student Tom Pinchuk and Mike Gallagher, who write and pencil their creation respectively. The lead character here, being the cyborg Black Zero, is as cold and effecient as a hero could possibly become. He marches on, on kilometer at a time, not because he has a desire to save humanity, or he has a personal vendetta to settle, or even for some reward. No, he does it simply because his programming tells him too. His internal monologues, which are merely a written out representation of his CPU processing information, is a soulless Times New Roman type font that mirrors his calculated actions and responses. Carnus on the other hand, is given a rich font that would not be out of place on a Dungeons and Dragons map. These character specific fonts, lettered by Phaedra Gallagher, speak loudly of both the characters they represent, and the depth of thought that their creators have given to their design.
Mike Gallagher's artwork here evokes distant memories of the drawings found in the role playing guidebooks like Rifts and Cyberpunk 2020. His eye for detail, especially in some of the background work, really sets the scene of the post-apocalyptic nightmare that Earth has become. His characters have dimension and mass to them, and it is a safe bet that Gallagher has an anatomy class or two under his belt. Many of the panels have motion within them, and Gallagher expresses in movement with speed lines that do not hamper the characters involved. During Black Zero's confrontation with Romm's soldiers, Gallagher gets to visually express the cyborg's precise attacks to dispose of his enemies, with a slightly dark-humored ting.
With only three issues to turn the heroic motif on its head, this bi-monthly comic is sure to be a fast paced run to the easily predictable final battle. But even when you know where you going, how you get there can still be full of adventure and surprises. Ruin is such a tale, and you would be wise to follow Black Zero on its journey.
This has been a Movies Comics At Midnight exclusive review
2:34 AM
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