Review: The Silencer Vol. 1- Code of Honor

Quick Summary

Pros: The entire comic is packed with well-written action and tension. The worldbuilding and character development is well done and adds new levels of intrigue to the book. The artwork looks great and adds to the action scenes.

Cons: Some pieces of the story feel a bit generic.

Overall: This comic starts a new series with a bang. The book immediately hooks you in with its bombastic approach to assassin-style action and maintains this level of intensity all the way through. While this takes place, the volume is constantly building on the criminal underworld it is exploring and on the cast of characters it has introduced. Plus, beautiful artwork enhances all of this even further. Anyone looking for action-focused comics from a mainstream publisher should absolutely consider this book. 

Story

I have to admit, I didn’t have high expectations going into The Silencer series. I wasn’t sure what this new character would offer that was not already present in the myriad of other stories about assassins. I’m happy to say that my expectations were subverted.

The Silencer Vol. 1: Code of Honor, by Dan Abnett, is a fun and seriously exciting introduction to a promising new series. This comic is packed to the brim with the levels of action and tension that one would expect from a book about assassins fighting each other. However, it adds to this by layering in some impressive worldbuilding and character development. By the end of the book, readers are introduced to a whole new side of DC’s criminal underworld and some great new characters. Overall, this is a solid start to a new series.

(spoilers start here)

Code of Honor puts the pedal to the metal from the very start, with a blistering display of action and tension. The very first chapter has the Silencer kill a cybernetically enhanced assassin in a parking lot with a pack of colored pencils, all while her son is just a few feet away. From here, she goes on to take down two assassins in the street, clear a building full of robots before the building blows up, and fight off an ambush alongside Talia al Ghul. This is a comic that never lets its foot off the gas and the end result works out well.

However, where Code of Honor starts to set itself apart is in the worldbuilding it accomplishes. This volume describes a massive war between factions of a criminal organization all happening right under the nose of the general public. There are secret warehouses, codes to be followed, and companies that clean the mess after the fighting is done. Reading this book is like uncovering a secret side of the standard world of DC Comics and the process of uncovering everything is very satisfying.

Code of Honor also tries to set itself apart when it comes to the main character’s personal story. I really enjoyed seeing how much Honor truly enjoys her family life, which makes her mission even more admirable. I also enjoyed the places where these two collide and Honor has to find some trick to cover for herself, like arranging a “movie” to be shot on their street or pretending Talia is just an old coworker. There are pieces of this story that still feel a bit generic or silly, like the fact that Honor’s son seems to miss any of her over-the-top antics, but the narrative mostly makes up for this through its other positives.

(spoilers end here)

Art

The artwork in Code of Honor is awesome from start to finish. The volume opens with some immediately dynamic work from John Romita, Jr. Throughout the first half of the book, Romita Jr.’s work wonderfully depicts this collection’s approach to action while also creating an impressive cast of characters. Then, Viktor Bogdanovic takes over for the rest of the volume and manages to produce equally spectacular results. These chapters are just as dynamic and expressive as the ones that came before, creating plenty of great action scenes. In addition, these later chapter have a crisp and clean style to them that simply looks appealing, especially when paired with Mike Spicer’s colors. All in all, the artwork in this collection looks nice and enhances this volume’s approach to action.

Continuity

The Silencer Vol. 1: Code of Honor is the first volume in a mostly independent series. The main storyline has its origins in vague hints given in Dark Days: The Casting #1, collected in Dark Days: The Road to Metal (Review) (Reading Order), but this is not necessary to understand what takes place in this volume.

The story here is continued in The Silencer Vol. 2: Hell-iday Road (Review).