The story revolves around four sisters, Eva, Anna, Mathilde and Giselle. They are known as the sisters of the grey, descendants of Gottfaust, a legendary hero who gained the ability to reshape the world after a rock from a fallen star was lodged into his chest. For over 300 years Gottfaust and his descendants have protected the kaiser, ruler of the Prussian Empire, Mitteleuropa. In each generation three sisters are born, one for strength, wisdom, and grace. That changes with the birth of twin sisters Mathilde and Giselle. Both sisters are considered half-greys and flawed. Giselle is disobedient and stubborn while Mathilde does not possess the physical perfection of her sisters. Despite their flaws, one of these two is the thriteenth sister, the carbon grey, prophesied by Gottfaust to bring about a renaissance and restore the nation to its former glory.
It's 1913, the start of the industrial age and there's a great war between the Axis and Allied powers. This war is actually a diversion set in motion by the Kaiser's wife, Queen Raisa Vasilyeva. She wants to harness the power of Gottfaust's stone, and plans to manipulate Mathilde to turn against her sisters to do so. While on Giselle's watch, the Kaiser is assassinated and all evidence points to Giselle as the culprit. Giselle, now on the run from her sisters, who want answers, and other enemies, must travel across Mitteleuropa into enemy territory to deliver a letter to the supreme commander of the allied forces and uncover the true meaning of Gottfaust's prophecy before Queen Raisa Vasilyeva uses the stone to rewrite history.
The first issue of the series can be download and read for free here
. There's also a two issue prequel series titled Carbon Grey Origins.
This series provides examples of:
- Badass Family: All of sister's of the Grey of capable of taking out a staggering amount of soldiers and perform superhuman feats with relative ease.
- Breast Expansion: The first time Dina Cumming is introduced she has extremely large breast. They shrink down to just large after she sleeps with Peppers. It turns out she used a chemical on her chest to swell to that size.
- Cleavage Window:
- While working in a brothel, Dina wears a minidress with huge cleavage exposing window. It's so big her chest looks like it's about to spill out.
- Anna also has a cleavage cutout with her black bodysuit.
- Cosmic Retcon: It's reveal in issue 2 of Carbon Grey Origins that an unknown force is twisting reality. This is the reason why in volume 1, issue 3 of carbon grey, Elliot's plane changes model midflight with no one, including the people on the plane take notice.
- Gas Mask Mooks: All of the shock troopers wear gas masks as part of their uniform.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: Queen Raisa Vasilyeva, who's the reason for the war in the first place and wants to manipulate the Sisters of the Grey into killing each other to get the power of Gottfaust's stone. The Kaiser on the other hand just wants peace for his people and didn't even want a war to begin with.
- Interrogating the Dead: General wolf has the ability to see the last moments of a person's life through their severed head
- Kill the Messenger: Eva, very quickly kills the chancellor who gives her the news of Giselle's assassination of the Kaiser so that news of it doesn't spread.
- Magic Meteor: Gottfaust's reality warping stone was a fragment from a fallen star
- Naked in Mink: Queen Raisa Vasilyeva wears a large fur coat with a just a loincloth underneath and Godiva Hair cover her breasts, just barely
- Preemptive "Shut Up": To escape The red Baron and his men, Dina and Elliot jump out of a window and in a cart filled with watermelons. Realizing the situation was ripe for a boob joke, Dina tells Elliot not to say anything.
- Pretty Little Headshots: Averted on numerous occasion. Every time someone gets shot in the head you can expect large amounts of Ludicrous Gibs and in some cases like the Kaiser, all that's left is a bloodly stump where the head used to be.
- Schizo Tech: The weapons seen so far include Zeppelins , World War II era jet powered fighter planes, MP5s, Lightning Guns and Mini-Mecha. The ground warfare resembles World War I, but one soldier is using a tablet computer.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: The Wolf General accuses Queen Raisa of orchestrating the Kaiser's assassination but as the queen points out, she's pregnant with the Kaiser's son, the current Kaiser. So, at least until the child is born, the Wolf General can't touch her since the kaiser now speaks through her.
- Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Giselle has alway had green eyes, but she's actually blonde. Her hair mystriously turns red after her violent escape from the Kaiser's Zeppelin. She lands in a cater filled with dead soldiers and blood which permanently turns her hair red
- Sole Survivor: Howard, an allied soldier, has his entire base blown up by a suicide bomber. Miraculously he survives unharmed.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: While on a train, Giselle is caught off guard by Anna, who suddenly and unexpectedly appears behind her after the train passes a tunnel.
- Succession Crisis: Goethe mentions to Giselle that the Kaiser has no heirs and for the first time in thousand years the line to succession is broken. Later it's reveal that this is not the case as the queen is pregnant with the Kaiser's son.
- Sword and Gun: Giselle is an extremely efficient killing machine with her sword and mp5.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Anna and Eva fit respectively. Anna is the sister of strength, is the tougher looking of the two and is extremely blood thristy. Eva is the sister of wisdom, like to think things though, and usually doesn't approve of Anna's methods.
- Twin Telepathy: Mathilde and Giselle are able to communicate with each other psychically, however the connection gets severed during the present story.
