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Polar: Came From the Cold

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    Nolando
    Senior Member

  • Polar: Came From the Cold



    Released by: Dark Horse Comics
    Released on: November 27, 2013
    Purchase From Amazon


    Writer-artist Victor Santos brings to life a tale of espionage, assassins, death and salvation in Polar: Came From the Cold. Warning: A spoiler-heavy review follows here.

    Heavily influenced stylistically by the likes of Frank Miller this TPB is divided into two parts, Blood & Snow and Sword of Damocles. The first part is all slick character introduction, building on the character's “silent webcomic” origins, as the main character known only as Black Kaiser is revealed to be the strong, silent type that, despite his age and missing an eye, is still a formidable foe. A team descends upon an isolated winter cabin where BK is engaging in what's presumed to be some well-earned nookie. The setup is obvious: A highly-trained team of special agents are set on taking BK out. But, as is the way with most of these hero types, his instincts serve him well and he's one step ahead of their trap. He escapes, murdering all his would-be assassins and discovering some clues as to who's behind the order.




    More panels pull up to an orbiting satellite that relays this info back to a command center and the powers-that-be are not thrilled with the results. The deadly and alluring chief known as Miss Van casually dispatches an enormous enemy and then casually slinks back through her fancy dinner party, hearing this news and determining her next steps. Meanwhile, BK is on the move, finding more clues pointing him toward Miss Van. She's busy working out her disappointment in a training dojo at Damocles HQ, the nerve center of the group now revealed to be those wanting to eliminate BK. She discusses BK with Blut, a sadistic, perma-grinning second that she assigns to BK's case.



    BK is next some distance from the scene of the opening slaughter. He's here to meet an old contact and get any info he can. The contact provides him an address and nothing more. As BK leaves the contact, though, it's clear he's been double-crossed as Blut surprises him, sedating and capturing BK.



    That provides the break to the second part of the story as BK is tortured relentlessly by Blut who wants to get more satisfaction out of this assignment than just outright assassination would provide for him. But BK is clever, biding his time and his pain to finally escape his captors and plot his revenge, turning the tables on Damocles and eliminating them instead.



    As this character/idea originated as a web-comic that was done silently the dialog here is minimal but employed effectively when it is used. Santos' knows he's dealing with some archetypes and mostly avoids cliches by keeping character interactions short (at the verbal level). The action is central to this story and Santos' style is frenzied without being out of control, employing some very clever isolating shots within larger panels during some fight scenes. Or, for grander scale, he'll use narrow multi-paneled pages to rely the insane level of action surrounding BK who is able to stride through them in larger panels. Since the character of BK dominates and drives the story it's important to keep him in focus as much as possible. Santos does a great job of this, also employing a very nicely done “scope-like” view that zooms in on BK and then away from him for some very slick transitions between panels and pages. Santos also sticks primarily to the Sin City-esque black/white/red color scheme and employs it dutifully here, minimalizing elements to bring BK to the fore and then surround him in a bloody mess the next moment.

    Pulpy, bloody, frenetic and fun, Polar: Came From the Cold is an excellent stand-alone story. Also included in this TPB is a bonus story, Red As a Rose, which appears to be one of the original web comics as there's no dialog in the short vignette. Additional artwork and character sketches are included as well as the original single-issue covers and a short biography for Santos.
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