The Secret History Book 1: Genesis

Written by Jean-Pierre Pécau
Art by Igor Kordey

This was a project that interested me right from the first time I'd heard of it, but for whatever reason, I never picked up the first issue, and then didn't want to read the rest of the series out of order.  Now that the series has been published in omnibus format, it seems that a few people are unloading the original issues on Ebay.

The premise behind The Secret History is that four siblings hold four runestones of immeasurable power.  They were given them by a dying tribal elder (this all happened five millennia ago), and this guy warned them that one person can never use the stones at the same time (regardless of the fact that he was wearing them all).  When they ignore his advice, they set off a minor cataclysm, and set humanity back some.

After that, the story jumps to Egypt in 1350 BCE, as Moses is having his conflict with the Egyptian Pharaoh.  Through reading this story, we learn that the two brothers from before are working behind the scenes, supporting the two sides, and manipulating events as the one attempts to gain power from the other.  It is through the power of the runes that the Old Testament miracles, such as the parting of the Red Sea, really occur.

I'm always a bit of a sucker for these types of alternate history books, where we learn the true cause of events.  I also like the idea that the series is set around the premise of revealing how the rivalry and distrust of these four siblings has shaped human history and politics.  It's a golden concept, and it plays out well here.  This volume reminded me very much of the earlier Archaia graphic novel The Lone and Level Sands, which also retells the Moses myth, although from a very different vantage point.

Pécau's writing works well, and I like Igor Kordey's art here.  I know he is an artist that gained a certain level of notoriety for his often-rushed work on Grant Morrison's New X-Men, but his stuff looks really good here.  I found in the preview that he was channeling some Barry Windsor-Smith kind of aesthetic, but the Egyptian scenes were much more in his own style.  Looking forward to Volume 2....