Review: The Bequest #2

 

 

I had trouble procuring The Bequest #2, as Diamond shorted my local comic shop (LCS) two weeks running. I saw it in another shop, so I figured it would eventually arrive. But either it sold out right away, or my LCS ordered fewer copies than the first issue, because I never saw it there. 

Eventually, I checked it out at another shop. The cover didn't attract me like the first issue had. Nor did it feature a dragon. I also think that the darker colors didn't show off well in the shop. 

Doing a casual flip-through, I was also put off by a few things, such as the characters just lounging around, hanging out in bars, or fighting with a bouncer. Nor did this issue feature any back-end extras, such as the bonus character sheets in issue #1. 

Still, I had enjoyed The Bequest #1. I had enjoyed writer Tim Seeley's run on Bloodshot. I had enjoyed a series titled The Infinite Adventures of Jonas Quantum drawn by Freddie Williams II several years ago. So in the end, I bought The Bequest #2 from my non-local comic shop, and took it home.

The excitement starts right away, as an old woman is awakened by noises. Marshall Dillon gives each utterance a different appearance. This makes sense when we realize that the woman keeps a collection of creatures in her castle.

 

Unfortunately, the woman faces a worse threat than the ire of her hungry animals. In comparison to the organic appearance of the sound effects in the previous panel, the all-too-regular POK POK POKs exploding out of Freddie Williams' panel suggest that something foreign to the realm of Tangea is occurring.

 

Ah yes. Orcs with guns. Every animal-keeper's worst nightmare. But why would they kill an old woman? Or did the orcs storm her castle for another reason?

 

In The Bequest #1, four renegade adventurers were conscripted to guard our world against those who use magic to transport themselves between Earth and Tangea. Lacking a threat, Billi Uft-Imp and Warlock Garthodd may not make the best use of their time. But Jerril of the Rose uses his abilities to learn about this strange land called Chicago.

He's surprised that he can entertain a child merely by summoning a spark of light, or the odd card behind the child's ear. Apparently, she doesn't need a fireball or a wraith to be delighted!

I don't know if colorist Jeremy Colwell darkened the interior of the Ferris Wheel, or if Freddie Williams inked it in. Whatever the case, I find the way Jeremy colored the scene--with the bright lights, the fading colors in the background, and gradations of blue in the sky--tremendously appealing.

 

 

Tim Seeley indulges in a lot of humor in The Bequest #2. After spending her evening listening to a woman playing the blues, Sharmae discovers that the beer the bar serves doesn't agree with her. Her conversation after the show, as the musician takes a break between sets, is delightful. 

 

 

I also liked this exchange between Billi Uft-Imp and Relikiquarfex. The latter usually goes by Relik, and should the need arise, can transform into a red dragon.

Also, after years serving as a guardian on Earth, he's still fascinated by the lyrics of the song "Puff the Magic Dragon." 

 

Relik and his new helpers face two dangers in The Bequest #2. One comes from the creature featured on the cover. It's somehow traveled to Chicago from Tangea, and is preying on those who venture into the underground. 

The second danger comes from the one-eyed monk Epoch Craev, along with renegade caster Diedree Dohl, and his followers. They don't belong here, and they intend mischief. Perhaps worse.

 

 

There's a lot going on in The Bequest #2, even if the issue seems to get off to a rocky start, and at times feels like a middle chapter. Freddie Williams II and Jeremy Colwell create very appealing scenes. Tim Seeley's story, artfully transcribed by letterer Marshall Dillon, makes me even more intrigued to continue on with this series. 

The series features coarse language that may turn off some readers. The mature tone of The Bequest may warrant parental supervision for younger readers. But if you're intrigued by the direction of this series from Aftershock Comics, with its back-and-forth between Earth and Tangea, and its mixture of magic with the mundane, you may want to pick up The Bequest #2 and give it a try.

 

 

The Bequest #3 comes out today. As you can see, Relik returns to the cover in full-on dragon mode. I need to know what will happen to Relik, Sharmae, Billi, Jerril, and Warlock Garthodd in issue #3. Have I fallen under the spell of The Bequest?

Time will tell...

Dragon Dave

 

Review: Orphan and the Five Beasts #2

 

Orphan and the Five Beasts #2: Virgin Art

In writer, artist, and letterer James Stokoe's new series Orphan and the Five Beasts #2, Orphan Mo combats a powerful adversary. We don't know his given name, only the name by which he is now known: Thunder Thighs. From the virgin art for issue #2, you can see why.

Before little Mo takes on this Goliath-like combatant, she remembers what her beloved Master told her about him.

Before he took in Orphan Mo, her Master once trained five apprentices to safeguard their land against the ravages of an invading warlord. Of the five, Thunder Thighs was the Master's most powerful. He trained harder and longer than any of his fellows.

 

 

Due to his inclination toward lower body strength, the Master gifted Thunder Thighs the supreme leg aspect. With this and his rigorous training, Thunder Thighs became the living embodiment of the "Two Trees Bearing Heaven" style.

Unfortunately, the warlord then ravaging the valley caused too much suffering. Like his apprentices, Thunder Thighs didn't have time to complete his training. He lacked the mental, emotional, and spiritual disciplines necessary to temper his insatiable physical drives. He and his fellow students were rushed into the battle.

 

 

After achieving victory against the warlord, he and his fellows assumed the danger was over, and they needed no more of their master's training.

Nonetheless, Thunder Thighs had a conscience. Unlike his fellows, who went their separate ways, and did not return to their master, Thunder Thighs worried about the defeated army. If he left them to their own devices, what would prevent the soldiers from becoming bandits, and causing even more suffering in their land?

So Thunder Thighs took on the responsibility of becoming their leader. He started off with the noble goal of mobilizing them as a Robin Hood-like figure. Instead, over time his unprincipled followers influenced him, and his overwhelming physical prowess eventually dominated him.

There's a lot to like in Orphan and the Five Beasts #2. In addition to learning Thunder Thighs' origins, you'll also enjoy Mo's incredible battle with him. James Stokoe's penciling and inking are beyond par, and his coloring style is refreshingly unique. 

 

 

I also like the little touches, such as the mazes behind Thunder Thighs (with icons of trees and a pillar) pointing to his upper legs, as well as the way he obscures the identities of the master's former apprentices. 

 

We don't learn anything of Orphan Mo's past in issue #2, but the fact that she's been a patient student becomes obvious. While Thunder Thighs relies on bluster and brute force from his legs, Mo fights a thoughtful, innovative battle. Even when the fight takes a wild and unexpected turn, she doesn't lose focus or hope. She adapts, and battles on.

 

 

As to lettering, I wish James Stokoe had made his narrative boxes a little bigger, and spaced out the lines a little more. Still, his dialogue balloons work well, and become especially fun when Thunder Thighs starts bullying poor Mo. And then, there are his expressive sound effects.

Orphan and the Five Beasts #2 serves as an cautionary tale of the danger inherent in rushing to achieve success before you're really ready for it. It features an intense and mind-blowing battle. It could easily serve as the basis for the most incredible martial arts fantasy movie you might ever see. 

Thankfully, we can look forward to two more issues in this short series. I wonder how  Orphan Mo can possibly vanquish the other beasts her master's former apprentices have become. Even more important, can she find a solution that doesn't create another future danger to her land?

 

The projected release date for Orphan and the Five Beasts #3 is June 2, 2021. This gives you plenty of time to hunt around your local comic shops, and pick up the previous issues, if you have not yet done so. 

I recommend asking your local comics shop to order your copy of Orphan and the Five Beasts #3 before this coming Monday, May 10th, which I believe is the FOC, or Final Order Cutoff. This is the final day your shop can order copies before Diamond ships them. That way, in case your retailer naturally scales down his orders for later issues in a series, you can make sure you'll get a copy.

 

Orphan and the Five Beasts Issues #1 & 2

 

After all, in addition to James Stokoe's story, you wouldn't want to miss out on what promises to be a beautiful four-part interlocking cover, would you?

Dragon Dave

P.S. Orphan and the Five Beasts #2 is in shops now, and available from Dark Horse Comics. The Previews World order code for Orphan and the Five Beasts #3 is MAR210286.

Review: The Wild Storm #1

The Wild Storm #1: Cover by Jon Davis-Hunt

 

In The Wild Storm #1, DC Comics architect and Wildstorm founder Jim Lee tasked veteran writer Warren Ellis to reinvent his beloved superhero universe for today's generation. 

 

From the first page, we know Warren Ellis has adopted a new sensibility. There's no hint of stylized superheroes. Instead, we find people adopting a pragmatic approach to protecting our world against the dangers that threaten it today.

 

It's an approach that's invaded big-budget Hollywood thrillers, and taken over TV police dramas.

It's dark, gritty, and very, very real. 

Still, like any good dramatist, Ellis finds ways to lighten such heavy themes. A little bit.

Along with a twenty-four hour news cycle, threats from criminals, terrorists, and nefarious organizations and governments never cease. Thus, our characters are always alert, always looking for where the enemy will strike next.

 

Even a supposedly off-duty Miles Craven, the director of the deep black government department known as International Operations, is always on the lookout. 

So is his husband Julian, who I expect we'll learn more about in later issues.

Jon Davis-Hunt's previous penciling and inking work impressed Warren Ellis with its "clean line, its modern feeling, his attention to acting and body language as well as his attention to detail and environment." Apparently, when Kieron Gillen showed him Hunt's work, Ellis' first reaction was, "That's my artist."

"And I was right, too," Ellis asserts in the interview in the back of The Wild Storm #1.

In that interview, Ellis said he wanted to look "at the conspiracy-theory landscape of today, so there was a lot of research on, for example, the current state of UFOlogy and the extraterrestrial hypothesis." He puts this to work immediately with an incredible transformation a young woman undergoes in this first of two incredibly detailed pages by Jon Davis-Hunt.

What if you saw a man falling out of a skyscraper? What if a woman standing beside you suddenly transformed into a flying, mechanized being? Wouldn't you wonder, just a little, if this person was really human?

 

On the other hand, rich technologist Jacob Marlowe comes across as all-too-human. You can see just how shaken he is, thanks to Hunt's penciling and inking, and Ivan Plascencia's coloring.

 

In The Wild Storm #1, there are no narration boxes or sound effects. Only two times does color invade a dialogue balloon. Still, letterer Simon Bowland has his work cut out for him with all the characters' interactions. 

If you prefer a wham-bang-boom five-minutes-and-its-over read, this comic definitely isn't for you!

Wildstorm Trade Paperback Volume 1

 

With Jon Davis-Hunt*, and presumably the rest of the creative team, Warren Ellis wrote four books (his words) in twenty-four issues. His first book, or graphic novel, features a stunning cover by Jim Lee and inker Scott Williams. In those first six issues, Ellis reintroduces such storied characters as Jacob Marlowe, Grifter, Voodoo, Zealot, Miles Craven, Michael Cray, and...that woman who turned into a flying mechanized person. I want to know more about all of them, don't you?

Congratulations to Warren Ellis, Jon Davis-Hunt, and the entire creative team on updating Jim Lee's wildly successful superhero universe for today's sensibilities!

Dragon Dave

*To see Jon Davis-Hunt's latest work, check out Valiant Comics' Shadowman #1, on sale today.

P.G. Wodehouse on American Composers

 

Piccadilly Circus, London, England

 

In the P.G. Wodehouse 1919 novel A Damsel in Distress, American composer George Bevan has traveled to London. He's been helping the director of a musical fine-tune his American show so that it works well for a British audience. One afternoon, he takes a cab in Piccadilly Circus, and a beautiful woman jumps inside. He agrees to hide her from a pursuer, and forces his chest out the window to hide her from view.

Not only is George a gentleman, but also he has fallen head-over-heels in love with her.

After an altercation with her pursuer, they arrive at his hotel. Even though she has not told him her name, he agrees to loan her money for train fare home. When he returns to the lobby, the woman and the taxi are gone. In her place stands her pursuer. The man asserts that it was bad enough that George knocked his expensive hat off in the street. 

Now George refuses to admit he's obviously sheltering her in his hotel room!

The man gets demonstrative. The hotel staff call the police. The man, who it seems is the young woman's brother, strikes a policeman who attempts to calm him. The woman's brother is hauled away to jail. 

The next morning, George pieces together the woman's identity and whereabouts from an article in the newspaper about her brother's arrest. He must see her again. So he forgets about his musical, boards a train, and sets out after her.

 

George rents a cottage near the family castle. Her learns her name is Maud. Eventually her father, an English Lord, who likes him from the outset, learns how rich George is. It would seem that royalties from all the songs George has written, which are performed daily in his musicals, make George a hefty packet. Still, her aunt is holding-out for her niece to marry a titled member of the British nobility.

Whatever will George do?

By the time P.G. Wodehouse wrote A Damsel in Distress, he had already created the characters that would regularly appear in his most famous series, such as Jeeves and Wooster and the Blandings novels. But what's most interesting to me is that this period of his career is defined more by his work on musicals. As an British songwriter, Woehouse found tremendous success writing songs for Broadway shows. Thus, his portrayal of George in A Damsel in Distress seems autobiographical in nature, if from an opposite point of view.

So, while historians suggest that P.G. Wodehouse played an important role in the development of the American musical, readers today regard him mainly as a British humor novelist. Clearly, he was so much more.

Dragon Dave  

Review: Orphan and the Five Beasts #1

 

In Orphan and the Five Beasts #1, Renaissance man James Stokoe introduces us to Mo. She spends her days training, and caring for her aging guardian. She strives to learn all the teachings of her adoptive house, and master its precepts.

One day, the apprentice finds a dying man branded with a strange symbol.

That evening, her master relates the sad history of their house, and how it has affected their land.

He tells her of a cruel aggressor who once terrorized their land. He also mentions the five men who asked him to give them the knowledge of his house, so they could defend their homes and villages.

Despite the way the invader devastated their land, the master refused their request. Unlike Mo, these villagers had not studied to learn such powerful knowledge. Nor had they trained to master the abilities they sought.  

 

Still, the men refused to leave him, and the people suffered. Reluctantly, the master bestowed one aspect of his house upon each man. Each promised that after using his newfound power to turn back the invader, he would return to the master, and devote himself to his teachings. 

Sadly, after safeguarding their homes, none of the five men returned. Over time, the power so easily gained unbalanced and corrupted them. In seeking to defend against a raging monster, they become monsters themselves.

 

 

So Mo is forced to leave her home, redeem her master's failure, and save her land from the depredation caused by the beasts these one-time saviors have become.

In Orphan and the Five Beasts #1, James Stokoe blends intricate artwork with a timeless story. Each panel is filled with expressive and detailed linework. His coloring, at once realistic and psychedelic, is reminiscent of the old days of four-color comics, but with today's graduated tones and shadings. His narrative boxes relate the history of their land, while his dialogue balloons reveal the strength and balance of his characters.

 

James Stokoe makes me yearn to know more of this earlier phase of this land's history. I wonder if Mo's parents were simple peasants who died amid the fighting. Or might she not really be an orphan, and her father one of the land's five would-be saviors?

If James Stokoe doesn't cover Mo's origins in this four-issue series, perhaps he will do so a prequel series someday.

In the remaining issue, I look forward to seeing how Mo erases her master's shame while safeguarding her homeland. I expect lots of martial arts action, along with Stokoe's unique over-the-top humor that makes this serious story more interesting.

With Orphan and the Five Beasts #2 coming out this week, check out this miniseries if you have not already done so. I don't know how Orphan Mo can possibly tackle all five of these superhuman beasts in the three remaining issues, but I look forward to finding out.

Orphan and the Five Beasts #1 is $3.99, and available from Dark Horse Comics.

Dragon Dave

Review: The Bequest #1

 

 

The Bequest #1, by Bloodshot writer Tim Seeley, caught my eye in the comic shop. After flipping through the issue, and seeing the artwork by Freddie E. Williams II, I knew I had to buy it. I'm glad to say that when I got it home, the comic didn't disappoint me.

 

The story introduces us to a band of adventurers in the realm of Tangea. They may be antiheroes, but you can sense the streak of good in them. Although they come from mixed ethnic and racial communities, they might not be welcomed with open arms by any of them. 

 

The backgrounds and characters look real and three-dimensional. Occasionally, the way artist Freddy E. Williams II plays with perspective threw me. But overall, his art really appeals. Rest assured, all the adventurers in The Bequest are (relatively) the same size, and worth getting to know.

 

In addition to our fantasy heroes (or antiheroes), this issue features two dragons. One is shown on the cover, and promises to play a prominent role as the series continues. This less colorful guy, an Elder Serpent, is named Veristine Kole. The way letterer Marshall Dillon colors the Elder Serpent's words red in a black dialogue balloon suggests that the dragon may not be wholly good, let alone overjoyed by his visitors' arrival.  

When Veristine Kole attacks them, the adventurers receive aid from an unexpected source.

 

In addition to soldiers from another realm, you may also notice two characters inked in silhouette. It is they who summoned the soldiers here. As the story unfolds, you will learn that the summoners pose a danger not just to our characters and their realm of Tangea, but to our realm as well.

 

Much to the displeasure of our antiheroes' leader, Warlock Garthodd, one of their party panics. Before the real world soldiers can save them from the dragon, Jerril Fain, a half-elf, summons the aid of the Chamber. This group of godlike beings, colored so beautifully by Jeremy Colwell, rescue them from immediate peril.

Standing in judgment over them, the members of the Chamber decide to conscript them into service. 

 

 

Thus our antiheroes, including sultry night elf Creedux, and a wood sprite named Billi, are transported to the realm called Earth. There, in the city of Chicago, they must pay penance for their crimes in their own world by policing the portals between our world and theirs.

Sound easy? There's one catch: the longer they stay in our realm, the more the magical powers they command will slip away.

At $4.99, The Bequest #1 runs a little more than your standard comic. But it contains twenty-four pages of story on hard, glossy cardstock. For you fantasy gamers out there, Tim Seeley has thoughtfully included five Character Sheets on our new friends. So while you read the series, you can also factor his heroes into your games.

 

I don't know much about publisher Aftershock, but I enjoyed The Bequest #1. With issue #2 coming out today, this would be a good time to check out the series, and decide if you'd like to get onboard. Personally, I'm very intrigued by this fantasy adventure. 

The Bequest reminds me of my own Dungeons & Dragons days, as well as the way author Brian Daley juxtaposed real-life soldiers into a fantasy world in his early novels The Doomfarers of Coramonde and The Starfollowers of Coramonde. It also reminds me a little of Roger Zelazny's Amber novels, and how the late science fiction author also enjoyed role-playing games. 

Well done, Tim Seeley, Freddie E. Williams II, Jeremy Colwell, and Marshall Dillion. You've crafted a very strong debut!

Dragon Dave