I saw some pages from this in San Diego and I was blown away by the detail and the power that Mike Hawthorne had brought to the page. A story of barbarian bikers in a sort of post-apocalypse San Francisco, with no holds barred violence? Sign me up. Unfortunately, while there's definitely potential for it to become more, Ruule starts off as a disappointment, offering little in the way of enticement other than a sort of over-the-top splatter violence style, and Hawthorne's beautiful pencils have been over-inked and waaayyy over-colored, to the point that a lot of the really nice detail in the pages has been lost. There's definitely a sense, especially in the final pages, that things could get more interesting from here, but as a first issue, Ruule doesn't grab my attention the way I'd like.
Brandon's script is full of mystery, tantalizing the readers with promises of story to come. The opening sequence speaks of human misery and sacrifice, and hints at a sort of godly presence that is confirmed in the closing sequence. The closing sequence is chilling and powerful, and is what finally recaptured my attention and made me curious to see what happens next. The promise is that the meat of the story, the majority of the issue, is given over to the depravities of the Mongol bikers and an introduction to three characters who have yet to step beyond the stereotypical.
Mind you, I like these three characters so far, and I like the sort of stunned disbelief the guy displays when the girl is angry with him for helping to save their lives. It's just that these characters get only a scant few pages, while most of the book is given over to the bikers raiding Chinatown or feuding amongst themselves. I give full credit to Brandon for showing us just how depraved and dangerous these bikers are, but given that he had 48 pages to work with and the first issue ends with me not knowing much at all about the world, the characters or the story, I can't help but feel that a lot of those pages were belaboring the point.
Those with a fondness for the ultraviolence of Lobo or Judge Dredd will definitely find the style of Ruule to their liking. Mike Hawthorne doesn't hold back when it comes to depicting the bikers' activities. Decapitations, men sliced in two, heads being knocked across the water like a baseball, sharp implements intersecting with the human body in the most brutal of ways... this is not art that pulls its punches. Sadly, much of the glorious detail of these images is lost in overly heavy inks by Rick Remender and garish color by Giulia Brusco. The latter is especially heinous in terms of using lens flares and other Photoshop tricks to obscure the art, and it's one of the best examples of how important a good colorist can be in terms of making the art work. In a cautionary tale sort of way, unfortunately.
Given the haunting, mysterious prologue and epilogue sequences in this issue, I think there's every possibility that Ruule could have a lot more to offer than this first issue promises. However, it's hard to be anything but disappointed in a book that is one and a half times the size of a regular comic, but has only half the story. In fairness, though, the price point for this format is outstanding.
