Real History, Sci-Fi Lens

In our history, Robert Smalls was a man born into slavery. He gained his freedom by seizing a Confederate warship for himself, his family, and others. He became a leader, a legislator, and a force for change.

In Leviathan Freedom, Smalls is one of the Doldrum Caste, the subservients of the Coalition. Aboard the Leviathan-class ship Freedom, he has the respect of his people—and the ear of Captain Argus Reylea. Smalls’ wife Anna wants him to use both to lead a mutiny, but he knows it’s not enough. Not until fate gives him a sign, that is…

Take the Power Back

This issue is mostly set up, and knowing the real story of Robert Smalls means there’s little question about how it’s going to go, but that doesn’t mean it’s not good. It’s actually quite well done.

Smalls is already a well-realized character. He’s a man who has the respect of his people and could rise up to be an effective leader, if only he wanted to. But he doesn’t have that spark in him. We see the first embers at the end of this issue, when fate delivers powerful Coalition weapons onto the Freedom, so the fire of revolution may soon burn within him.

For such serious subject matter, I was surprised at the moments of humor mixed in. They weren’t from the characters, as that wouldn’t fit the situations, but rather from the captions and narration. I got a good laugh out of the data card introducing the Freedom, where “Days Without An Accident” was crossed out and changed to 0 after the opening scene.

For a digital-only Amazon Comixology original, this issue flowed quite well, which is not always the case. I could easily picture seeing this in print—in fact, I’m not sure why a major publisher didn’t pick it up, given Morello’s name recognition.

Bombtrack

Tom Morello and Marc Guggenheim get equal credit as writers of this issue, so I’ll talk about them together. The idea of the series—telling the story of Robert Smalls through a sci-fi lens—is all Morello. I’m guessing much of the actual craft is Guggenheim. The pacing is solid. They have to introduce a lot of characters and concepts in only 20 pages, and they do it without overwhelming the reader. There are a few spread pages that both show the scale of events and give the art a chance to show off a bit.

Speaking of the art, Szymon Kudranski does a great job here. His characters are clean and detailed, and he conveys the massive size of the Leviathan ship effectively. There’s minimal action, but there is one battle scene and some explosions, which he renders well and easily follows. There is no colorist listed, so my guess is he colored his own work. Regardless, the colors work well with his art, showing the dirty mechanical feel of the world on the ship and juxtaposing it with the flashes of the wider battles going on.

Wake Up

Leviathan Freedom #1 is a solid start to Tom Morello’s science fiction epic, telling the story of a real-world revolutionary through a different lens. I’m baffled as to why this debuted on Amazon instead of through a major publisher, but maybe that’s something planned for down the line. I’ll certainly be checking the rest of the series out, based on the strong start shown here.