The warring nations of Veil and Ryllion have just one thing uniting them – the dragon-riding Rangers of the Divide, neutral peacekeepers patrolling the borders between nations. Some, however, are more experienced than others – and when an elite Commander drops by a Ranger camp seeking help, he finds that a group of rookies are all he has to work with to prevent an oncoming catastrophe. Created, written, and illustrated by Megan Huang.
Exposition can be a tricky thing. This is especially true of first issues, ones introducing brand new worlds rife with unique life forms, political systems, magic, and technology. Finding that balance between explaining to a reader what they need to know to understand a story while keeping the story itself engaging enough for a reader to keep reading, can be one of the hardest challenges a comic can face. It’s possible that *Rangers of the Divide* has an engaging story, and an equally engaging world built around it – unfortunately, it’s hard to tell whether or not that’s the case from its debut issue.
The issue opens with a recap page of sorts, explaining to the reader who the Rangers are in the first place, while also teasing some looming, unnamed threat. It’s one of the most frustrating things about the issue – despite several mentions made towards this extreme threat, there’s not the slightest clue as to what that threat could be, making it harder than usual to be able to connect to the stakes. Of course, the young, untrained Ranger cadets don’t really know what’s going on, either – all they know is that legendary Ranger Commander Knight has come to their outpost, seeking the help of more experienced Rangers, and finding a handful of rookies instead. Whatever danger the world is in, it’s apparently dire enough for Commander Knight to recruit the young cadets – though not before he tests them and their dragons in battle against a few large and terrifying wendigos, just to see what they’re made of.
There’s potential to this group of eager young teenage warriors, but we don’t get a lot of time to get to know them. Despite Huang’s attempts to give each of them a quick moment of individualization within the issue – one is a diligent soldier, one relaxes with paper folding, another is the group rebel, never fully on board with being told what to do – it’s only Elsie who really gets to stand out as the brave leader of the group, willing to face monsters down alone if she has to. I feel the book could have done more to establish this group’s personality, and dynamic, given that they’re going to be the focal characters of this series going forward.
Rangers of the Divide #1 doesn’t have a lot you can sink your teeth into. Commander Knight is the exact kind of surly, tough-as-nails squad leader who’s been seen a hundred times before. He’s a man on a mission – one that the reader is repeatedly told is important and unlike anything that’s come before, but tell-don’t-show rarely makes for good reading. The book’s biggest saving grace is in its art. The first few issues show off the wilderness of the Rangers’ territory, and the wildlife that comes with it. The colors are bright, and breathtaking – the animals, adorably cute and intriguingly designed, even the monsters. While the expressiveness of the characters – Commander Knight especially – are over the top in ways that don’t always fit the storytelling, there is an energy to every panel and the action scenes that hint at what this book could feel like if it had a better handle on its characters and pacing.
It feels like there’s a good comic in this series – unfortunately, most of it is off-page. There’s been some thought put into this world, that much is clear – the specifics of the Rangers’ uniforms, the exposition at the start of the comic, the lizardlike wings that pop out of the Rangers’ arms, and the dragons themselves – but when I have to read a letter from the author at the end of the book to find out that the dragons manipulate metal instead of breathing fire, it points to a weakness of the book at establishing the kinds of things vital to a first issue.
There’s a world worth exploring in Rangers of the Divide, and characters that it might just be worth getting to know. It’s a weak first issue that doesn’t do as much as it could to establish its best selling points – but I’m cautiously optimistic about what’s to come.
