Comic Review: Kingdom: Call of the Wild by Dan Abnett

Call of the Wild comes hot on the heels of The Promised Land. Gene the Hackman and Leezee Sower have escaped the Them and are now travelling the Lawn into territory where the Them seem not to travel as much. This is Book Two of the series, and Gene is getting into more trouble than he can handle.

Commercial Fluff: Earth, the far-future. With the planet now overrun by gigantic alien insects, Mankind is all but extinct. Genetically engineered dog-soldier Gene the Hackman now protects one of the last remaining human beings – a young girl named Leezee Sower. The two of them have travelled to the land of Auxtralia, straight into the territory of a new pack.

Review: An enjoyable follow-up to the Promised Land. It's not fully explained, but Gene and Leezee have ended up in Auxtralia after fleeing from the farm following the Them attack. It also seems, for now, the Them in Auxtralia have fallen quiet, but when they appear, they are huge and utterly different from anything Gene has seen before. We also discover that here, the Aux is not pure anymore and is bred from many breeds of dogs; this allows for freedom in the artwork and the ability to bring in some more interesting characters. I love their leader in particular.

We also get to see why the Aux came about and the early years of the war against the Them. We also see the Masters attempting to devise a plan to save the human race. In this cutscene, we are introduced to a Military General who needs to win an unwinnable war, so he starts the Aux program, combining dog DNA with humans. Jump forward to Gene's time, and the now mad War leader (interned in a robot stasis suit) is back, and he is hugely disappointed in the Aux of modern-day Auxtralia and how they are nothing compared to the pure strain Gene (harsh). Soon, Gene is forced to choose between the Masters and Aux, a choice that almost destroys Gene.

Then, to make things even sadder, Leezee Sower's part in Gene's story ends. After discovering another human on Earth, Leezee is extracted to an orbiting space station, leaving the loyal Gene alone and wandering the lawn again.

As I said at the start, this story was enjoyable, and it was interesting to discover the origin of the war. The stori’s artwork is on point, just like the first book. Gene seems to suffer repeatedly in this tale, especially with the loss of Leezee. How often can Gene lose the ones he loves before he snaps?

Leave a comment below if you have read this tale.

Cheers