There’s a rural family sharing dinner. There’s a silent sense of terror in the father. A few pieces of bread are taken. There’s sudden movement seen from out of the window. The father has some work to do in the barn. He was not to be seen. There’s brutality, but it comes from a brutal world in The Sacrificers #1. Writer Rick Remender opens a whole new series with artist Max Fiumara and colorist Dave McCaig. The opening issue is a study in contrast between two ends of the same dark fantasy world. It serves as a fascinating opening to a new ongoing series.

Elsewhere, there’s a princess. She’s not exactly the daughter of the sun and the moon, but she might as well be. She has just turned 18, and she feels as though she’s ready to be a bigger part of the world. An impoverished rural farmer protects his son and family for entirely different reasons than the godlike royalty, but the two children are linked. They don’t know it yet, but fate and the author have paired the two characters together to challenge what is clearly an unjust system in a very dark and very fantastic world.

Remender opens an ongoing series with a couple of situations that seem to be simple matters of right and wrong on the surface. The author gives a very clear definition for what the title is at the end of the issue. However, it's clearly a theme that will run through the entire series given the fact that so many people are sacrificing so much to maintain the system, as witnessed from the limited perspective of the two major scenes in the first issue. Parents must sacrifice their children to maintain their own sense of sanity in an unjust system. A couple of children will have to sacrifice the overall stability of the system in hopes of abolishing tyranny. 

Fiumara brings a jarring sense of contrast between the two families present in the first issue. The rural poverty of the family at the beginning of the issue is contrasted against the beautiful opulence of the gods who seem to rule over everything. Fiumara’s vision for the royalty is elegantly amplified by McCaig’s colors. The king is clearly drawing on imagery from the sun with a dazzling radiance. The architecture of the palace feels ancient, alien, and impossibly beautiful all at the same time. By contrast, the farmhouse of the poor family is given a stark austerity, which suggests a simplicity that hides a greater darkness. 

So, the opening issue looks really good. There is clearly a lot of world-building to be done over the course of the series. Remender is taking his time with it. The world rests in the background as the drama of these two families gradually finds its way to the page. So much is seen through the eyes of the two children, even as they are clearly given smaller corners of the narrative at the beginning of a hopefully long and satisfying serial.

Grade: A