BINGO – Shadow
Burnu is a member of the Kulipari, an elite group of frog warriors. He is tasked with finding and securing a set of scrolls that will hopefully give the frogs that advantage over their years long conflict with the reptiles. His goal is to sneak around using stealth to gather information about the scroll’s whereabouts as per his training, but that plan is quickly thwarted. The story utilizes alternating time jumps between the past when Burnu is training with his cohort of other frog warriors and the present where he is alone and fighting against a huge group of lizards who seem to know something about the scrolls Burnu is searching for.
There’s a very interesting premise here and something incredibly unique. Warrior frogs? Magical scrolls from a serpent diety? Rivalries between various animal groups? All very fun. However, not enough happened in this first issue to warrant reading any more. Too much was left unexplained or unshown. It’s a good idea that unfortunately didn’t hook me in enough. I don’t really know why the lizards and frogs are fighting. There’s a last page reveal that there’s another group of frog fighters (who all look very different from Burnu), but there’s literaly one panel of the those new fighters. That’s not enough for me to start caring about them.
The art is very good throughout the entire issue. Action sequences are clear and easy to follow without slowing the action down. There’s a jaggedness to how all of the characters are drawn that fits in with the barren, desert landscape that fills the background of the issue.