Dynamite Entertainment 2016
Written by Erik Mona
Illustrated by Jonathan Lau
Coloured by Omi Remalante
Lettered by Simon Bowland
Kyra the cleric and her allies Valeros, Merisiel, and Seoni find themselves transported to the Worldscape—a deadly dimension that imprisons the greatest warriors of Golarion, Barsoom, and Earth! To make matters worse, each has appeared far removed from one another, and must fight to survive without their usual allies. Kyra finds herself in the polyglot city of Shareen at the heart of the Worldscape, where death lurks at every corner, and allies of strong character are in short supply…
Before Merisiel found herself traveling with her current companions she ran with a different group. During that time she found herself in the Worldscape long before she would find herself back there again. What Erik does here is what we’ve been waiting for well kind of as we get to learn about the Worldscape and how it came into being. While we get a nice look at how and why the Worldscape came into being how it continues to function is a completely different story and one that we aren’t currently privy to.
Erik also provides some incredible characterisation here for us. This look at Merisiel as a younger woman, she’s an elf after all their age is so hard to determine and well she’s a master thief so will we ever really know?, is one that I wasn’t expecting but I have to admit was utterly fascinating. The way that this story is structured continues to demonstrate Erik’s ability to craft a tale that constantly surprises through it’s ever twisting series of events. I mean what we see and Merisiel’s role throughout this issue was something we’d never expect to see.
I love the interior artwork here. Jonathan does this utterly amazing job bringing this to life. His creativity and imagination here are what draws you in and it’s his attention to detail that keeps you here. The use of page layouts through their angles, perspective and the utilisation of backgrounds really keep the eye focused on the page. With Omi’s colours the two really do have this great way of making all these different humanoids, creatures and beasts coherent and fit into one story.
This issue really delves into what is currently going on and how the group finds themselves in all this now. However now that Merisiel is back and remembers everything that has come before what will that do for the story moving forward? There’s this great imagination and creativity in the storytelling here that captures the character’s past and present in ways that are hard to describe. It has this electricity to it that sparks the imagination and then makes you wonder how the characters from all these different realms fit together.
This is without a doubt the best crossover a company has done with their properties. When it seems like these characters should never meet Erik has gone above and beyond in making the Worldscape a place where their adventures together make complete sense.