Reviewer: James Hatton
Story Title: The Legend Continues…
Written by: Richard A. Knaak
Adapted by: Trampas Whiteman & Sean J. Jordan
Penciled by: Andrea DiVito
Colored by: Laura Villari
Lettered by: Bill Tortolini & Lithium Pro
Published by: Devil’s Due
I know not everybody is a fan, but I like Devil’s Due books. They are doing some fun stuff. Between GI Joe, Army of Darkness, and Voltron, these guys have got licensing up the wazz. More power to them, because they are taking these licenses that Marvel would (or has in the past) vomited on, and making them enjoyable reads.
Take for instance Dragonlance. For the uninitiated, D.L. is the story of a fantasy world that was initially created by TSR for a campaign system. They turned a couple of those campaigns into fiction novels by Margaret Weiss & Tracy Hickman, and now they are fantasy gospel. One of the legends that Weiss & Hickman invented in their books was that of Huma, the greatest Knight that lived. A man who was both legendary and honorable, and defeated the great evil that is Takhisis so many hundreds of thousands of years ago.
They wrote novel after novel, and a few even about Huma himself, and here it is in comic form. Since I never read any novels but the Weiss/Hickman’s, I was interested to see how they would do it. I’ll tell you, enjoyable.
Story!
Five issues in, and we are journeying with Huma, his Minotaur buddy Kaz, and the newly joined mage, Magius.
Now without explaining the last four issues, I’ll just let you know that up until this point and time, Kaz & Huma have bonded and they are working to do good — no matter the cost. Magius, on the other hand, seems to be quite the shady character. His dress isn’t like wizards or clerics, and he seems a bit creepy.
By the end of the issue, you still have quite a few questions about how Magius operates, but you at least know why he’s so creepy. It’s a good twist. It also builds heavily on the distrust between he and Kaz. Apparently Minotaur’s hate magic, and if mages are like this to them all the time, it’s a deserved bias.
Now, as far as the WAY the story is told, I’m a bit sketchy. They aren’t giving you much to go on as far as HOW the world of Krynn works. Why do wizards take tests to be wizards, what rules must Huma follow.. it gets a bit hazy. I will say this though, they are slowing feeding you everything you need to know about the world of Krynn, and by the time they get to the end of this first story, you should know all you’ll need to know.
Art!
The art is much crisper than it was in the first few issues and that is a big plus. They are really finding their footing with the Prince Valiant style. Everything seems epic and fantastic. The Minotaur isn’t just a tall bull. He hovers over them. Magius’ doesn’t live in a tower; he lives in a fantastic spire that was obviously not created by human hands.
The background details in the trees and cliffsides also lend to a book that is quite easy on the eye. It’s everything you would want out of a dramatic fantasy story.
Overall
They are setting the groundwork for a long tale, even five issues in you are still meeting your base characters. I have a strong feeling that once this book is into its second and third arc, we are going to be amazed. The story right now isn’t moving as heavily as it could be, but I blame that simply on the amount of ground they have to cover.
Rumor has it that Devil’s Due is working on getting the Weiss/Hickman licenses from Hasbro/TSR, and I don’t see why they wouldn’t. They are showing that they can do every genre without limiting themselves to ‘superheroes in different backgrounds’.
