Amala's Blade Issue 3 Review: Sometimes Plan B Is the Best Plan
Written by: Steve Horton
Art by: Michael Dialynas
Published by: Dark Horse Comics
Some of you might not be familiar with Amala, and that's a shame. Turns out Amala is a pretty cool person, minus all the killing of marks and such, but other than that, it seems she'd be a blast to hang out with.
Let's start from the beginning, since we are coming in at issue 3. Amala's Blade is a techno fantasy tale of a master assassin named Amala who is caught in the middle of a Civl War (or the aftermath of one) between the Purifiers, who are basically steam punk personified, and the Modifiers, who have taken tech to a way more personal level than Google glass could ever go. Caught up? Good deal. Oh, did I mention she talks to ghosts?
I didn't? Apologies, where are my manners? In issue #2 we find out that her various marks over the years have all gathered in what amounts to a spirit world support group and have taken to assisting Amala in her as yet undiscovered purpose. All this in spite of the fact that she, you know, might have killed some of them. While it's not that important, I should mention there is an awesome ghostly monkey, and as we all know, monkey's make everything better. Seriously, they do.
Okay, okay, where was I? Oh yes, so now that we are up to speed let's go over issue 3 a bit more specifically. Amala finds out her mission from the Great Vizier is to take out a target with a very close tie to her past, and that meeting gives us a closer look at how she got to where she is today. A core part of the book has been revealing just what affect Amala's profession has on the world around her, and there is a nice bit of that highlighted here. To get to her mark she has to dispatch several guards, normally just nameless cannon fodder. In this instance, the mark reveals a bit about each guard, humanizing them a bit and getting across the point that killing has consequences. It does manage to give the character pause, even if just for a brief moment.
After a tussle with the modifiers we find out more about their plans, and it turns out they are launching a covert attack against the purifier faithful. After being thrown in the pit she is attacked by a Cerberus dog/snake creature (nicely drawn and colored by Michael Dialynas by the way), but with some timely help from her ghostly pals lives to fight another day. Its interesting how they can actually effect the physical world in small instances, but it hasn't been revealed how they are able to actually do that just yet. By issue's end the ragtag group finds what they're looking for, but maybe bite off a bit more than they can chew.
It's a nice setup for the last issue of this 4 issue mini series, and so far I've enjoyed learning about the world that Horton has created. Amala has been a refreshing character, mostly because she tends to be all grey area. I don't necessarily like her, but somehow I continue to root for her. Without a likable supporting cast the book wouldn't be nearly as good, and Horton excels at making the small windows in between the action count. I will say the more screen time Amala's ghosts get the better. Dialynas' art has grown on me by leaps and bounds, especially his colors. He's not afraid to use bright pops of purples and blues, and the book is much more visually interesting for it. Occasionally I had difficulty sorting out what was going on, but this only happened when there was an influx of smaller panels on the page, as they tended to blur together. When the art has room to breath it's wonderful and fits the world perfectly.
Overall, Amala's Blade is a nice breath of fresh air from my mostly superhero pull list, and I think you'll enjoy it as well. Let me know what you think of the series so far in the comments or hit me up @KnightofOA.