Ever wonder what a good story filled with supernatural creatures would be like? In these days of sparkly vampires and teen drama werewolves, they can be hard to come by. The nice thing about Epoch is that it doesn’t just stick to vampires and werewolves either. There’s a multitude of different creatures spanning from angels to what appears to be Medusa. The story seems to revolve more closely around angels and demons though. Either way, I’m pretty happy from just the first issue.
There is a small amount of cliché involving the main plot. All the supernaturals have some kind of truce going on that the demons aren’t happy with. Those demons, they always have to cause drama. Anyway, of course the breaking of this agreement is going to bring about catastrophic disasters, probably in the form of the destruction of humankind. End cliché. Amongst the angels, we see a few familiar names; Michael and Gabriel to be specific. There’s no confirmation that they really are the archangels of old, but I bet Uriel and Raphael will make appearances at some point. There’s a picture depicting a bunch of the creatures are clustered around Michael and a demon fighting. That’ll give you a good idea of the different species to expect. I’m pretty excited about the Medusa lookalike, though I suppose it doesn’t have to be Medusa, specifically. She could just be a lamia or something, but either way, it looks like there’ll be some mythology thrown into this series.
The story is mainly about a cop, who seems to have quite the impressive lineage. Jonah’s your typical youngster – a hothead with a chip on his shoulder the size of the world. And what would the hero be if he didn’t have a few daddy issues to go along with that? That brings about another question; why do all these comics have to do with cops and reporters? I guess that would be another piece of the cliché, but as a fan of Witchblade, I’m being a hypocrite. Anyway, if Chris Redfield from Resident Evil and Zell Dincht from Final Fantasy VIII made a love child, he would be Jonah – in both physical features and personality. Considering I liked them both, of course I’m going to enjoy Jonah being the main character.
The artwork looks like something I’d expect from Top Cow, and that’s generally the reason I keep an eye out for their stuff. Epoch is right up there with Witchblade, Darkness and Angelus. Actually, that’s a pretty accurate description given the angels and demons plot. There are some seriously beautiful panels in this issue though, generally focusing on angels with fully extended wings. I can only imagine how long it took to pencil in all that. The effort pays off though, in spades. There’s quite a bit of detail in every picture too, from the shading down to the strands of hair and bulging muscles. Not that I’m complaining about the fan service, not at all. There’s some pretty perfect specimens of the human form inside these pages. It’s worth the read just to stare at the artwork.
I was pleased with the first installment of Epoch, overall. It has the makings of one of Top Cow’s finest series, so I expect it’ll become rather popular very soon. The story’s pretty standard with the creatures and broken peace, but it’s a solid base to branch out from. It’s hard to say what’ll happen next beyond there being a war. War always follows these sorts of things. The main things Epoch has going for it is the mystery behind Jonah’s heritage and there being so many species to choose from. I’d suggest giving it a read if you like supernatural mythology or a good cop drama.
Felicity Gustafson was born in Ohio and, after the astounding realization that there was more to do than look at trees and cows, she decided to become a nerd and got into comics, anime and video games. New to Comics Bulletin, she sticks mostly to reviewing things out of the horror and comedy genres. She spends most of her time working in the manufacturing industry, finishing her computer degree and steadfastly avoiding ham fat at all costs.