Written by Anna Toole

Art by Elmer Damaso

Colors by Bryan Valenza & Stelladia

Letters by Jim Campbell

A thousand years after a global apocalypse, humans are no longer the dominate species. That role now belongs to the machines that act like animals and protect the ecosystem. The mad Sun-King Jiran sacrifices, and bloodletting have led to several groups of rebels trying to de-throne him. These rebels get an unlikely ally in the form on one of the Sun-King’s princes, but will it be enough to overthrow the mad Sun-King?

The story of this graphic novel is somewhat cliché, and the pacing is off. There are transitions between current time and past time that were confusing because this comic does not include any word bubbles that tell you anything relative to the time. This makes the story difficult to follow through some parts. The infighting between the various rebels is also hard to follow. I feel there is a lot of character progression that is missing. Anna Toole provides the exposition, but it is at a bare minimum. Perhaps you must know more about these rebels beforehand. This story is based off of a popular video game, but I have never played Horizon Zero Dawn so I am unaware of these characters. The weakness in this story line is that we only have one character that has any progression.

The world building is the strong point of this story. We are set up well before the book begins. You know enough about the world to understand it. The artwork done by Elmer Damaso is very well done and helps to flesh out the world even more. The lining and shading are very

top notch. The colors are also done very well and make everything very visible and clear. The detail is such that it looks like an anime and most of the panels are very easy to understand. The action looks good and is easy to follow which is always a sign of quality artwork.

Horizon Zero Dawn: Liberation get 6 capes out of 10. More character progression would have done a lot to make me care about the characters and their motivation, instead we have a cookie cutter story that is marginally good at best.