What would you get if you combined the sadistic serial killer of Dexter, with the brainwashing and combat training of a Halo Spartan?
Probably someone like our protagonist Abel, only he has far less compassion than the aforementioned examples, and might be quite a bit more unhinged.
Let’s talk Savage Things.
Savage Things (Vertigo)
With no background on this book, I assumed based on the cover alone that the Savage Things might be some type of threat our lone gunman is killing.
Turns out? It’s him.
Abel – not his name – is out lighting fires one night as a child. The joy on his face at seeing things burn is a bit of a red flag. This is only intensified when he arrives home, to find his parents dead and a stranger in his house holding a gun on him.
He’s not sad. He’s not devastated. He’s a blank slate, with one important distinction:
He’s a complete sociopath. This might be a bad example, as I’d probably kill anyone who touched someone in my family…but he’s calm. He’s collected, and as we see later, killing is not something that disagrees with our young protagonist.
This book is intense. We’ve got some time jumps, some very mysterious murders, and our protagonist showing off a very Jason Bourne-like set of abilities. Savage Things #1 gives you a very basic backstory filled with huge gaps, but with lots of tantalizing scraps on either side.
Truthfully, reading the first few pages put me off this book. It got dark quick, and seemed a little too intense for me considering current events. By the time I got to the first time jump I wanted to know more, and by the end I’m in for the first arc at the minimum.
This is a book that typically only Vertigo can do. Let’s see how they shape up. 8 out of 10.
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