The massive crossover event between The Tithe, Think Tank, and (my personal favorite) Postal is finally here! Writers Matt Hawkins and Bryan Hill and artist Atilio Rojo stir the three franchises together into one explosive and far-reaching story.

Is it good?

Listen to the latest episode of our weekly comics podcast!

Eden’s Fall #1 (Image Comics)

Observations

Since I don’t regularly read two of these titles, the extensive background pages are much appreciated.

After one page and two lines of dialogue, I already hate this Thorton guy.

Not sure about this tech, but I’ll roll with it.

Not sure if I’m supposed to like this Loren guy, but I really do.

Kind of weird seeing the town Eden from outside eyes. It somehow seems even more terrifying this way.

…and Mayor Shiffron is still a total badass.

HA! Gotta love Mark.

Dang. Sam isn’t just good with tech— she’s also an expert truth bomb dropper.

BOOM! Nobody messes with the Mayor!

Is It Good?

Hawkins and Hill had quite a challenge this first issue. Despite all the wonderful potential a crossover like this has, they still needed to establish the norms and characters from each franchise enough that their respective narratives mattered to the reader.

To the writers’ credit, they do a great job of it. Unfortunately, their efforts occasionally come at the expense of the story’s momentum, often halting or slowing things down when they’re just starting to get good.

That being said, Eden’s Fall #1 still a very good read. After one issue, I feel like I have a good grasp on all the players I didn’t know and a fresh perspective on the ones I did. We also have the groundwork laid for a supremely intriguing conflict that branches off from one very clear villain into multiple sides, all of which can be seen as good, bad, or both.

There’s not much action this issue, but Rojo does an outstanding job when it happens. He also augments Hawkins/Hills’ script by portraying each character with distinct personalities and reactions to what’s happening. That may seem like a simple/basic thing, but in a book like this with so many people (and readers like me who can lose track of things), it helps tremendously.

As a Postal fan, I loved getting to see my favorite characters from a different perspective. I also found myself enjoying the heck out of every scene that Loren was in…so if part of this crossover’s goal was to attract new readers to different titles, then mission accomplished ☺.

And now that the characters and the basic conflicts have been established, I can’t wait to see what happens next to everyone.