Posted in: Recent Updates | Tagged: archaia, Bill Paxton, Dwayne Harris, Head Smash, tim bradstreet, Vlad Yudin

Head Smash: To Obey Is To Die – Part III

To start with here is the third prologue for Head Smash:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/YHi-mpzPn-E[/youtube]

This week we've been showing you a series of prologue's for a new Arcana graphic novel called Head Smash. The book was conceived and written by Vlad Yudin with art by Dwayne Harris and covers by Tim Bradstreet.

In the videos we are led by Maurice, voiced by Bill Paxton. The narrator introduces us to the pre-apocalyptic city of Ares and a prophecy of a thousand year war that seems to be on the immediate horizon. He lets us know about a boy that he took off the street and raised as his own, a boy named Smash. It seems Maurice knows the full prophecy, that there will be a child born that will guarantee the side he's on will win the war. A child Maurice knows comes from a pair of Smash and a woman named Leyla. He placed Leyla in tempting range of his young ward and let nature take its course and it did. Leyla becomes pregnant, Smash is betrayed by The Horde and Maurice is betrayed by his disgruntled scientist who's popular controlling serum had a variant that induced great strength. Of course the scientist doesn't give the second serum to Maurice, but he does give it to Smash.

Yudin has worked a lot of classic science fiction themes into the story. It's like were standing at the genesis of a negative utopian society. Maurice is Big Brother waiting to happen. He's pulling all the strings, using everything he can to beat down and control the populace. He uses the Horde to make life in Ares as horrible as possible, he uses religion/prophecies to take away any hope and then offers up a chemical solace that I'm assuming ends up being quite addictive. Since this is a prologue, perhaps that is where we are when the graphic novel begins.

As for our hero, he has all the elements you need: a dark past, rebirth, enhancement and purpose. Smash is raised to be a soldier by a very bad man, he is manipulated and betrayed. He is left for dead but like a phoenix he rises from the ashes stronger than ever… literally. His is a redemption story but add in the search for his pregnant girlfriend and you have as Miracle Max would say, "a noble cause".

In just over six minutes of video time, the three part prologue has created a world we can feel, characters we can understand and relate to and set up a compelling story and I am looking forward to reading the graphic novel and seeing just what happens to Smash, Leyla and Maurice.

If you missed the first two videos, click here for the first and here for the second.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!