Army of One Vol. 1

by Tony Lee, Yishan Li (Illustrator), Bryan Valenza (Colorist)

Overview

Could one girl be the key to uniting a world split by an ages-old prophecy spurred by Brother Havoc and Sister Fortune?

A thousand years ago, a mighty battle pitched two of the greatest sorcerers against each other, Brother Havoc and Sister Fortune. In the end Brother Havoc won, shattering his rival into a thousand shards.

Now, a millennia later, teenager Carrie Taylor not only learns that she is one of these shards, but that each shard created an alternate universe, with multiple versions of her out there—and a great evil is bent on destroying them all.

Carrie must team with a handful of “alternate” Carries from across the universes to fulfill a prophecy that will bring Sister Fortune back from limbo to defeat this evil, but the more Carrie travels from broken universe to broken universe, she realizes she might not be working for the “good guys”—nor, perhaps, is she one of these shards after all.

If that is indeed the case, then who is she?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781549307980
Publisher:	Oni Press
Publication date:	03/05/2024
Series:	Army of One
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.70(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Tony Lee is a New York Times-bestselling author who has written Doctor Who (IDW) and Superboy (DC) as well as creator-owned comics series. He is based in the UK and has also written novels and screenplays, and is currently adapting his graphic novel Hope Falls for television.

Yishan Li is a professional UK/Chinese manga artist currently living in Shanghai. Her work can be found in publications from DC (Batwoman Annual #2) and Dark Horse (Hellboy and the B.P.R.D: 1956), among others.

Bryan Valenza is a professional comic book colorist based in Jakarta, Indonesia, and working with Marvel (Invincible Iron Man, Amazing Spider-Man, Ghost Rider) and DC (Batman). He has also written and co-created his own comic book, Beyondtopia Legends.

Editorial Reviews

03/04/2024

This energetic, universe-hopping action series from Lee (Hope Falls) and British-Chinese artist Li (the Hell Boy series) hits the ground running but occasionally trips over its own conceits. Carrie, a typical Illinois teenager, is thrown headfirst into adventure when she meets a group of superpowered alternate-universe versions of herself—and the interdimensional assassins out to eliminate them. All the doppelgängers, she learns, are “shards,” copies of their original: Sister Fortune, a powerful being who was destroyed by her sibling Brother Havoc. Every character Carrie meets, including the many versions of herself, harbors a different agenda, and she’s hurled across the multiverse on the run for her life before she or the reader can catch up to whose side to be on. “I can’t be the chosen one,” she complains. “I have a math test on Friday.” Though aimed at adults, the story line holds obvious crossover appeal for teens. Li’s clean and dynamic art excels in the action sequences and, enlivened by warm colors, rises to the challenge of rendering each version of Carrie visually distinctive. But the large cast, multiple rival groups, alternate universes, prophesies that may or may not be true, and other story elements (including which Carrie has which specialized superpower) may leave readers dizzy. Those who hop on board will hope this speedboat rights its course in volume two. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

02/01/2024

High school senior Carrie Taylor is living a typical suburban existence until her school is attacked by vampiric creatures determined to murder her. She's rescued by a group of women who look a lot like her, because they are her, from an array of alternate Earths. A millennia ago, an epic battle between entities called Brother Havoc and Sister Fortune ended with Sister Fortune being split into 13 shards, which scattered across the omniverse before manifesting in alternate versions of the same woman. There's a prophecy that says Carrie is the key to uniting the shards into a force capable of stopping Brother Havoc from conquering every reality. Before Carrie can wrap her head around that, she's kidnapped by gun-toting knights who claim that she's not a manifestation of Sister Fortune but a clone developed with the express purpose of stopping Sister Fortune's shards from bringing about cosmic destruction. Not knowing who else to trust, Carrie recruits her girlfriend, Stacey, to join her on a quest to discover the truth. VERDICT Despite an overabundance of exposition and worldbuilding, this is an intriguing initial offering from Lee (Hope Falls) in an ongoing sci-fi adventure, starring a charismatic queer teenager.

Library Journal