Broken Frontier

Page 1: the earth gets blown up. Page 2: alien slave market. Page 3: the last man on earth gets XXXXX. Page 4: Shakara! The stakes of this mad dash surprise ahoy explosive sci fi revenge tale just keep getting more insane while the story progresses. Shakara will blow your favourite Star Wars socks away! Written by Robbie Morrison (Nikolai Dante; Tangled Web; White Death; the Authority) and beautifully illustrated by Henry Flint (Zombo, The A.B.C. Warriors; Nilokai Dante; Elephantmen; The Haunted Tank), Shakara is a thrill-packed slice of 2000AD at its very best.

Throughout the universe they fear it; the dark entity who seeks out those responsible for the destruction of its race. It calls itself Shakara, named after those long-dead beings, and it answers to no one or nothing save its own thirst for vengeance!

Shakara is the ultimate nullifier. His speech pattern is limited to his own name, announcing vengeance from a deceased race. His motivations are pure and simple: revenge. The how and why though is slowly unfolded throughout the tale but first you have pass trhough numerous mad ideas of wonder and violence. Morrison breaks open all the gates and just like Shakara's battle lasers, his tale swings wildly in all directions but still with a razor like focus. Since our protagonist is not exactly the most talkative of characters, Morrison often zooms in and out of other tales of inhabitants of this galaxy who are in some way connected to Shakara. Sometimes they are implicated in his mysterious quest, sometimes they are just in the way and sometimes they deal with the implications of Shakara's actions. But one thing is for certain, you are never sure who is going to survive meeting Shakara and their appearances are various and multifold.

On the way, we meet the ultimate soul lover assassin; a walking, talking sentient galaxy, a beautiful female able to call upon her parallel world others, a race of telepaths with floating eyeballs for heads, world-devouring starships and I'm not even counting the countless alien worlds and beings that form the backdrop of the story of Shakara. All of this is illustrated with an amazing maniacal energy by Henry Flint. His scratchy linework looks like the bastard offspring of Carlos Ezquerra and Kevin O'Neill. His storytelling is energetic and spacious, taking his time to show of the madness of the universe he and Morrison have created. While the drawings are all coloured with a graywash, red is used for Shakara's eyes and laser blades. Flint thankfully utilizes Shakara's offkilter design with the haunting red eyes and glowing blades as a graphic element to enhance the horror, often focusing through close-ups to an infinite deepness of the red or making him stand out in chaotic battles. Flint's designs for the alien concepts Morrison comes up with are suitably over the top and crazy.

Morrison shies away from the human element and inserts us into the far flung future: no humans, no 'A few years from now'-tales, no moralistic meanderings about the future of our society, no reflection on today's events through tales in the future. There is only Shakara, his revenge and the galaxy he scourges. Don't mistake this for lazy storytellling though, the mystery of Shakara is touched upon in this first volume which ends on a cliffhanger and the veil slowly lifts itself. Along the way we also take in the reactions of the galaxy's inhabitants and learn the reputation the race of Shakara has gathered.

Shakara is a violent tale for a violent time. The galaxy suffers under the great Terror and Shakara the avenger is unleashed due to the creative talents of Robbie Morrison and Henry Flint. They have crafted a revenge tale amid the madness of floating telephatic eyeballs and walking galaxies. A sci-fi tale refreshingly clear of humans and reflection. A sci-fi tale that just is, just like Shakara. Highly recommended.

Shakara is published by 2000 AD and Simon & Schuster, is a 176 pages paperback that retails at $19.99 and is available from September 13, 2011 at your retailer.