Precious Metal by Darcy Van Poelgeest & Ian Bertram

with colors by Matt Hollingsworth and letters by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.

There’s no escaping the fact that Ian Bertram’s art is far and away the most arresting aspect of this project. The best way for me to describe it would be horror manga through a 70s psychedelic lens, as a far-future America where body modifications are the norm is beset by religious strife. Mr Hollingsworth’s colors do a terrific job of turning the volume both up and down on the gore where necessary, but if you’re squeamish when it comes to body horror, this is probably not the graphic novel for you. If you’re okay with a significant amount of gore and grotesquerie tho, then the panels very much reward extra scrutiny. Biology is gross, y’all, and none of the art in these pages felt like it was being any more nasty, brutish and short than life in the natural world actually is. Most of it felt, in fact, like an extrapolation of scientific advances that are more concerned with function over form.

The story itself revolves around a tracker named Max Weaver, who’s hired to find and return what’s basically a runaway enslaved person who’s about to be absorbed by the Twelve, a death cult that worships a deity cobbled together from flesh. What Max doesn’t expect is that the target is a kid, who is both deadly and engenders a weird feeling of kinship in Max. Not wanting to snatch the kid only to hand him over to one of the most notorious and powerful gangsters of New Empire, he takes off with the target instead.

This sets Max off on an odyssey of blood and betrayal, as he seeks to safeguard the kid and figure out their tortured connection. The book starts off strongly, with strong visuals and an action film feel, starring a complex antihero. It’s a little tough sympathizing with Max tho when he keeps making stupid choices. Learning that he is also a Special One only makes him more frustrating, especially in a book that is heavily anti-Church while also being light on theology (like, the whole conversation between Alina and Bishop was vapid nonsense masquerading as profundity due to all the carnage around them.)

That said, I did very much appreciate the scenes with The Axe, and how the fact that the Rebellion was made up of everyday people just trying to live their lives is of especial relevance now considering the horror show that is the current occupation of Minnesota. The twist with the kid’s identity was also really well done. I do feel like the ending was written as an allusion to Little Bird, this team’s debut graphic novel, so the meaning was lost on me but will likely land well with fans. This volume is billed as a companion to that earlier book, after all, and probably works better if you’re already familiar with the overarching story. It’s still a very engaging book with well-executed, if gory, art.

Precious Metal by Darcy Van Poelgeest & Ian Bertram was published May 13 2025 by Image Comics and is available from all good booksellers, including