Dynamite Entertainment 2018
Written by Crystal Frasier
Illustrated by Tom Garcia
Coloured by Morgan Hickman
Lettered by Thomas Napolitano
Starfinder Backup Story
Written by Erik Mona
Illustrated by Diego Galindo
Coloured by Mohan
Cocksure fighter Valeros has shuffled off his mortal coil and now finds himself adrift in the cosmos beyond the living world of Golarion! Surrounded by angels and devils hungry for his soul, and without his resourceful friends, Valeros must survive his greatest adventure by his wits alone… a dire challenge indeed!
Well things start to make a little more sense where Valeros is concerned as we see him in the opening when he was a child. I do find it interesting that even in this fictional world of Pathfinder that the farmers were less concerned about the education of their children, reading and writing, and more fixed upon giving them the skill to live off the land, farm and make a living and support a family with hard work. His grandmother well she was one of the hoity toity elite who knew spells and was probably a Pathfinder herself would ridicule the entire family. It kind of makes sense to see him as boy and know that kind of upbringing is a factor in the man he became.
I like the way this book is structured and the whole flow of what we see here. From the past to the present and everything in between this is how you tell a story set in a fictional world. It almost feels like it takes the whole Egyptian mythology of the afterlife and mixes is with the Christian belief where you are judged and deciding on that outcome where it is you go. It seems to me to be a creative way to mix and meld a few established ideas and make them across and new and original. Crystal does a magnificent job with how she’s got the whole book to make not only a weird sense but to get the reader to see things like I just did.
It’s not until we get to the end of the story for this issue until the major twist happens but before that I love how we see Valeros’ journey. He has a jewel on his forehead and it’s something in life he wasn’t supposed to touch and this is why things are how the are. So the real question is why is there a case of mistaken identity happening here? What did that crystal do? There are a few ideas, see theories, as to what happened but I will gladly wait and see if I am right or wrong but in the meantime seeing how all this plays out is more than half the fun!
Tom and Morgan do some nice work on the interiors here. The utilisation of page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows off a very good, solid eye for storytelling. The attention to detail is very nice to see and the way the varying weight of the linework is fantastic as we get to see subtle use of it to solid and bold use. There really is a lot to like and appreciate in what we see here and the colouring and the way the gradation or choice used in certain situations really makes some moments pop nicely.
Now the backup story holds the attention incredibly well too. The whole D&D in space idea is one that I adore and really want to find a way to play. The myriad of species and how we see things unfold is utterly I want to say adorable but it’s extremely well done. The whole mix here and what we see and the undeniable way I see these creatures as walking talking Tribbles yeah I am totally hooked on this and I wanna see a full stand alone arc!
This is fun for me it’s extremely well written, interesting and complex in all the right ways and it just makes you want to find your friends get a game going and drink, have snacks and just let loose.