Volume 1 of Bitter Root was an absolute delight to read, with many different aspects of the comic helping it. In terms of art, the style is slightly gritty and not in a bad way. It lends to its setting of a dark time in American history. Also, the art features many dynamic panels, which are simply awesome to look at and improves the action of scenes. In terms of story, Bitter Root absolutely does not hide any of its influences and actively puts it at the forefront, with many story events happening in the real world and holding importance in the narrative. Something I personally think is lacking is the characters; we don't get to know much besides obvious goals and basic personality. Only some characters have bits of their history shown, and not really given time to be delved into. Which leads to a second bit of complaint from me about the paceing. The pace of volume 1, I think, is really fast. We jump from 1 event to another without any time to think on them. This is probably just me, I read more books than comics so I can definitely be biased here. And these 2 points of complaint can definitely be better in the later issues, so don't think too much about what I've said. Overall I very much enjoyed Bitter Root's art and themes and would very much recommend it for people searching for these kinds of themes in their story's. more