DEUS EX: CHILDREN’S CRUSADE #1 is the beginning to an interesting (so far, that is) story arch set in the Deus Ex universe by Titan Comics. Written by Alex Irvine (Iron Man, Daredevil), with art by John Aggs (John Blake, The Boss), CHILDREN’S CRUSADE takes place when the anti-aug sentiment is at an all-time high. A large portion of society doesn’t trust augmented individuals after the Aug Incident, an Illuminati orchestrated event that caused augmented individuals to attack their ‘normal’ counterparts.

The story starts off with Adam Jensen, the mechanically augmented protagonist of the Deus Ex: Human Revolution videogame, joining Task Force 29. Task Force 29 is an Interpol-funded squad which was created to squash the rising amounts of terrorist related activities across the globe.

Jensen finds himself in the city of Prague as he gets ready for his first mission with the squad. Being the only augmented person in the unit leads to the inevitable need to fit in but that proves difficult when his augmented abilities prove to be extremely useful in the field. Couple those circumstances with the unit’s mission of freeing child hostages who are augmented amidst anti-augmented media attention, and things are sure to blow up a bit.

Thankfully, Irvine’s writing is brisk and relays a bunch of information for those new to the world of Deus Ex. Novice comic book readers might find it a bit hard to follow at first, but another pass should clear up any possible questions. Aggs’ art-style is solid and fits in with the universe set by the video game world. So far, this looks like a solid pairing for the series.

Overall, CHILDREN’S CRUSADE #1 does a great job of setting up the major story arch for the series. If you have a passing interest in comics and are looking forward to the Mankind Divided videogame set to release later this year, then you should definitely check it out.

SCORE: 8.0 out of 10

A review copy of Deus Ex: CHILDREN’S CRUSADE #1 was provided to Pixel Related for review.

WRITER: ALEX IRVINE
ARTIST: JOHN AGGS
COVER A: CONCEPT DESIGN BY YOHANN SCHEPACZ
COVER B: GAME COVER BY MICHAËL VERHAAF
COVER C: ALEX RONALD
COVER D: BLANK SKETCH
PUBLISHER: TITAN COMICS
PAGE COUNT: 32PP
FORMAT: SOFTCOVER
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 10