Aloy and Talanah Set Out On a New Adventure in “Horizon Zero Dawn #1” Comic (Review)

Horizon Zero Dawn‘s story continues in this Titan Comics comic book sequel to the hit 2017 video game. Spoilers abound here for both the game and the comic, so ye be warned.

When Robo-Dinos Will Rule the World

Horizon Zero Dawn #1 takes place several weeks after the final battle with a rather pissed off AI who wanted humanity to go extinct already. Aloy defeated it in battle, became a hero, and then decided to run off on her own. Clearly, Aloy is one of those types who decides that once the job is done, she rides off into the sunset. Literally in this case, since she has the ability to control machines, including robo-horses.

However, Aloy isn’t the hero of this comic book story. Or at least, she isn’t the primary hero. Our story stars Talanah Khane Padish: the brand new Sunhawk of the Hunters Lodge. She is, in fact, the first female Sunhawk in the history of the Lodge. Unfortunately, she also discovers that being the Sunhawk isn’t all fun and games. Politics and bureaucracy comes as part of the cost of being a leader, and she’s tired of trying to make a bunch of old men do what she wants. So when a bounty contract gets put out on a strange, new robot; Talanah jumps at the chance to get away from it all. Unfortunately, she also jumps right into the steel embrace of a new robo-dino exclusive to the comic: the Clawstrider.

Clever Girl

Believe me, when you have swords for hands and a chainsaw for a mandible, you don’t want to take these things lightly. You certainly don’t want to take on multiple Clawstriders at once. And yet, that’s exactly what Talanah does. Admittedly, it’s not entirely by choice. It seems when you’re the Sunhawk, bad luck also comes with the job. Encountering 3 of those darned things at once definitely counts as bad luck in this case.

Also, as it turns out, getting stabbed in the gut by a robo-raptor isn’t fun at all. I bet Talanah is really regretting leaving her cushy Sunhawk office by now. Fortunately, Talanah has a savior, but interestingly, it’s not Aloy. It’s a new guy named Amadis. We don’t know much about him, and we never do in this comic. He’s apparently some random, cranky guy living in the wilderness, and is really upset about all the mercs going around leaving dead robo-dinos around the town. Based on his comments and the way others treat him, it’s likely that he’s an outcast like Aloy was, but that’s about it.

He doesn’t seem to play much of a role after saving Talanah beyond assuming the worst of her though. His appearance does neatly segue into the part of the Horizon Zero Dawn comic where we finally see Aloy though.

Make sure to head over to page 2 for the rest of my review