Horizon Zero Dawn: Liberation is the collected edition of Titan Comic’s recent follow up to their first Horizon Zero Dawn comic series, The Sunhawk, and the latest installment is bound to please fans of the game, as well as sci-fi comic fans.
On the heels of February’s highly anticipated video game release of Horizon: Forbidden West, Liberation continues to fill and expand on the original Zero Dawn storyline, and zeroes in on Aloy and Erend as they search for a killer and continue to defend themselves against the maniacal machines that populate the world.
Of note to hardcore “Horizon heads”, details of Meridian’s history and the death of the Carja Vanguard captain (who just happens to be Erend’s sister Ersa) are revealed in the new comic series.
Since Liberation takes places during the original game’s story, and not Forbidden West, writer Anne Toole and artist Elmer Damaso have a little more creative license to fill in the blanks, while steering clear of any aspects of Forbidden West.
The lead writer of Horizon: Zero Dawn, Ben McCaw, provides the bones of the story that Toole builds into a fully developed script. Toole’s dialogue fits both the style of the game as well as any fantasy or sci-fi story, making the characters easily relatable to those who may be unfamiliar with the grander story.
Damasco brings all of his experience with anime-inspired art (particularly his work on the recent Robotech adaptations) to the low-tech/high-tech world of Horizon: Zero Dawn, capturing the barbaric and feudal aspects (and costumes) of the world as well as the deadly mech.
As an added bonus, concept art, original covers, and art progress sheets are included in the collected edition.
For fans of the game, the latest entry from Titan Comics is a must. And for those who may stumble upon Liberation at their local comic shop, they may find themselves looking for both the original game and Titan’s first continuation of the story.
Horizon Zero Dawn: Liberation (with a suggested retail price of $17.99) is currently available at your local comic book shop or bookstore.
