The Roots of Chaos Vol. 1 - Lux & The Roots of Chaos Vol. 2 - Umbra by Felipe Hernández Cava & Bartolomé Segui (Europe Comics)

Synopsis: “March 1953. Alexander is walking through the streets of London with a bomb in his hand. It is destined for Marshal Tito, during his controversial visit to Great Britain. Alexander's story began several months earlier, when his mother was struck by a car and instantly killed. Trying to understand why and how his mother, who was in an institution for senile elderly people, wound up so far from her home, Alexander finds himself caught up in a spiral of terror involving the British secret service, strange Serbian nationalists, and the island of Majorca... all of which culminate, several months later, with Alexander finding himself on the bank of the Thames, holding a bag with a bomb in it”

Review: The Roots of Chaos is a crime/espionage/historical thriller. It was originally published in French in 2011. Europe Comics published the English edition and the translation was done by T. Scott-Railton & K. Sullivan. It's a complete story told in two volumes (albums).

The Roots of Chaos has a familiar set-up. A man in the present is on the verge of doing something drastic and the reader will get the story that lead up to this. A mystery surrounding a death was the catalyst. The protag's mother, a senile elderly woman in the care of a facility, is found dead on the other side of town. What happened, was it really an accident, and, most important of all, who was she really. It turns out her son didn't know her at all.

The Roots of Chaos is largely a journey into the past which becomes a journey of self as the protag learns about who his mother really was and how all of this new info upends everything he thought he knew. Her history is tied to European history and both World Wars. 

Does that synopsis feel a little dense and wordy? It probably represents the comic well. The Roots of Chaos is a talky comic dense with information. I wouldn't recommend it to someone who desires more action in their genre fiction. But it was informative and really scoped out well how we all represent the people, places, and forces that came before us. (I just started reading the novel The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne by Ron Currie and the opening chapter captures this idea really well when it introduces the main character as a teenager by way of her entire family history. Band Dionne is great so far fwiw and comes highly recommended from a friend). The first book was a large amount of history and set up and I think I enjoyed the second half of the story more.

Readers looking for a more cerebral piece of espionage crime fiction should check out The Roots of Chaos.

Verdict: Mixed positive/ recommended

Availability: The Roots of Chaos is available in English digitally and through the library apps Hoopla and Comics Plus