Rick Remender's new Image book sounds like Knock At the Cabin with birdmen

The cast of The Sacrificers. — (Image credit: Image Comics)

How far would you go to save the world, and what would you give up? Those are the bleak questions at the heart of the latest creator-owned comic from Rick Remender.

The Sacrificers is set in a utopian future where the peoples of the world (who appear to be a mix of talking birds, humans, and other peculiar creatures) live together in harmony. There's a cost to this paradise, however: five families must choose to sacrifice one of their children to keep the world safe. But will everyone go along with this terrifying edict?

Drawing the new book is Amazing Spider-Man's Max Fiumara, and it's colored by Dave McCaig. "Max has long been one of my very favorite artists," Remender said in a press release. "We worked together briefly on a Spider-Man story years ago and he's always been at the top of my list of artists to reunite with. I think what we've developed here is one of the most beautiful and unique stories in the marketplace, in no small part due to Max and color master Dave McCaig's next-level world creating. It is truly unlike anything I've ever seen before."

You can see what Remender means right here, right now, as we've got the first three pages of #1.

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Pages from The Sacrificers #1 — (Image credit: Image Comics)

Fiumara, for his part, added: "The Sacrificers is the book I've always dreamed of working on. The pitch completely hooked me with its combination of emotional human dilemmas, exciting worlds, and eccentric characters. I'm having a blast designing it. The collaboration with Rick has been terrific, his way of thinking of story is amazingly simple and effective. He creates strong scenes that I manifest, we complement each other quite well, and Dave is doing such beautiful work with colors."

The first issue has various variant covers to choose from, including new work by Tula Lotay, Mike Mignola, Matteo Scalera, J.G. Jones, and more. You can check out the full set in the gallery below.

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Max Fiumara's cover for The Sacrificers. — (Image credit: Image Comics)

Image's official blurb for the comic reads:

"In The Sacrificers, tomorrow is a harmonious paradise thanks to five families who make everything perfect…for the price of one child per household. Now, as that bill comes due, a son expected to give everything for a family that never loved him and an affluent daughter determined to destroy utopia who must now unite to end one generation’s unnaturally protracted reign."

The Sacrificers #1 is published by Image on August 2.

Perhaps one day some of the characters from The Sacrificers might end up on a list of the best animal superheroes.

Will Salmon is the Streaming Editor for GamesRadar+. He has been writing about film, TV, comics, and music for more than 15 years, which is quite a long time if you stop and think about it. At Future he launched the scary movie magazine Horrorville, relaunched Comic Heroes, and has written for every issue of SFX magazine for well over a decade. His music writing has appeared in The Quietus, MOJO, Electronic Sound, Clash, and loads of other places too.