Sisters of Sorrow #1 Review

Sisters of Sorrow #1

Writers: Kurt Sutter, Courtney Alameda
Artist: Hyeonjin Kim
Colorist: Jean-Paul Csuka
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Publisher: Boom! Studios

A review by David Hildebrand

As soon as I saw the cover for Sisters of Sorrow #1, I knew I had to get my hands on it. I dig grindhouse, B-rate, exploitation themed stories and the cover with a beautiful lady dressed as a nun and holding two sub-machine guns certainly captured my attention. I love tales of revenge, and find the ones centered around women to be more interesting because there are more emotions attached to their character compared to a male character. Women are portrayed as the victims a lot of the time so I enjoy seeing them execute bloody justice in the end.

The story opens at The Haven House for Survivors of Domestic Violence. We are introduced to a group of ladies discussing matters in their bathroom when one of the women’s ex-husband manages to break into the house with the intentions of forcing his ex-wife to go back home with him. The situation escalates, and ends up with the man shooting his ex-wife dead. The surviving ladies take it upon themselves to insure the man will never hurt anyone ever again. A quick cover up here, a little training there, and with a newfound taste of blood, the women appear prepared to handle anything, or more importantly, anyone that crosses their path.

I had to read Sisters of Sorrow #1 twice. The first time around, I was kind of stunned because it wasn’t what I was expecting it to be. And I couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Sutter and Alameda create a diverse group of characters who have the potential to become great characters. And with the duo’s past work, I have no doubt that it will happen. It just didn’t happen in this issue. But it’s the first issue and as fast paced as it was, it did set the foundation for what’s to come. We do get a taste of the ladies’ personalities, and I am looking forward to getting to know more about each one and their story of how they ended up at The Haven House.

Kim and Csuka’s artwork works well with the story. The shadowing and darker colors add to the grim theme of the issue. The women have been through some hard times, it isn’t all colorful roses here and the illustrations paint that picture perfectly. The action scenes flow and the energy is high. The detail in the characters faces project the aggressiveness and grievousness of our heroines.

The Verdict
Buy it! I did appreciate the book more the second read through. I was hoping for more a grindhouse style of story and something more over the top than what is given in Sisters of Sorrow #1. What I read was a strong beginning to a more grounded tale of revenge. The violence is more realistic and not blood gushing, limb dismemberment as I expected when I first saw the cover of the book. The characters are going to be the driving force behind this story and I look forward to the next issue to see where Sutter and Alameda take the women!