Let’s preface this review with a confession: I would have been very unlikely to have ever picked up I, Tyrant #1 based on its blurb, or even its cover.

The reason I have it, and read it, is because I finally succumbed to the blind bag fever which seems to have completely taken over the comics industry right now.

I purchased an Image Comics 2025 Stocking Stuffer blind bag when I received a cash gift from a relative, thinking it’d be a cool idea to get something I could open like a gift and still have a surprise awaiting me inside, even though I bought it myself.

Inside each of these blind bags is a single comic, and they’re guaranteed to be a variant cover of at least 1:25 rarity, but can be as scarce as 1:100, or even an exclusive variant cover that can’t be found anywhere else.

It’s a neat concept, but as there are so many titles it could be, it’s a much bigger gamble in terms of finding something you actually want, than you’ll get when buying a blind bag containing a specific issue with a random cover.

So here’s what I found in my blind bag. A copy of I, Tyrant #1 with a Frank Miller homage cover by Ryan Gajda. A 1:50 variant, it’s suitably scarce that I was pretty thrilled when I realised what I had, and I thought the cover looked cool too. I hadn’t heard of the series before, so didn’t know what I was in for. The comic’s blurb online wasn’t helpful either, being less than insightful as to what the story was about.

Truth be told, after reading it, I’m still not sure. I’ve read my fair share of self-indulgent and pretentious comics in the past, and sometimes they can feel at least a little impenetrable; however, I haven’t read anything before where I’m at such a loss to interpret a story outright.

As close as I can figure it, a guy who’s a disappointment to his family has written a play and created some art which has caused a great deal of controversy. He’s seeing a therapist because some of this came to him in a dream, and it’s full of grim stuff about a truly despicable ruler who seems to be sacrificing his subjects, including babies, for the sake of consolidating power and subjugating just about everyone around him (I think!). In the present, his ancient, evil bastard seems to actually be possessing the artist, and wants his ending rewritten. Is he going to use this to return to the modern world and wreak his horror upon us once more?

Who knows? I certainly don’t, and while I genuinely don’t mind being challenged by a narrative and doing some heavy lifting in terms of interpretation, the fact is that I, Tyrant #1 just doesn’t do enough to give the reader what they need to make sense of the story. It jumps from the past, to the contemporary world, to the play and to dreams without any signs or clues that it’s happening, and the narration is awkwardly written, in such an overly flowery way, that it doesn’t help either.

The artwork is phenomenal, it has to be said. However, there’s also an issue I found with its realistic depictions of every horror that occurs: it’s too detailed for my liking, and I found it very hard to stomach its unflinching, close up imagery of various atrocities. I know it’s supposed to be horrific, but it’s really not to my taste at all.

So yes; a cool experience in opening my blind bag, but the comic itself was definitely not one I enjoyed actually reading. I was left repelled by the story and its art overall, so I won’t be checking out more issues from the ongoing I, Tyrant series.

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