Dark Horse Comics 2015
Written by Greg Rucka
Penciled by Carmen Carnero
Inked by Terry Pallot
Coloured by Michael Atiyeh
Lettered by Michael Heisler
Greg comes aboard the Dragon Age family with an all-new tale and characters set in the Dragon Age world. So this is a perfect story for anyone unfamiliar with the Dragon Age stories or just fans of Greg’s who’d like to see what the world is all about. Yes it’s based on video game but hey as we all know you don’t need to have played it to enjoy the comic but if you do play or have played then this is a great companion to fleshing out the world!
I love these stories, part of me will always be an rpg gamer, D&D of course, so getting stories set in worlds where magic and swordplay are the rule rather than the exception well count me in! So we start off with a nice narration about what’s happening as we see a Blood Mage at work. Meet Marius and Tessa, she’s narrating, they kill Blood Mages and this has a prisoner and they’ve been hired to extinguish her.
While Tessa is a talker that’s a good thing or we’d never know what’s going on here as Marius is the strong silent type. From what we can infer he’s got a thing about Blood Mages so there’s a whole bunch of stuff in his past that’s opened up for exploration should Greg or anyone else choose to go there. I’m sure we’ll get some of it here if it’s important enough to state its got to play a role.
Actually I really enjoyed the opening half of the book, the narration and introduction to the characters it flows nicely gives you a great sense of who they are and what they are about. More importantly it gives Terry and Michael a chance to really impress with their interior artwork. Since it’s narration and not dialogue and it’s pretty much one huge extended fight scene we get to see a lot of what they are capable of here. The attention to detail, the tone, mood and feel of the story shines through plus the page/panel layouts keep things flowing nicely throughout.
After an introduction the characters need a quest, mission or paying job as the case may be. So they get one and it’s not something Marius was going to take but he needed just the right kind of persuasion from the man making the offer. Flavius the Elf, assuming thanks to the ears, has come to Marius and immediately we see how things are going to go. Not very well and Flavius has to really peddle it if he’s going to convince him to take on the job.
I do like the whole idea that this area is one where Marius doesn’t work and he’s quite adamant until he’s told one thing. So naturally a hero does what he does and breaks his own rules, something he should never do by the way. Upon arriving at his destination however it would seem there’s a change in plans, isn’t there always? So in a territory where Blood Mages run amok with unforetold power our Blood Mage hunter finds himself in precarious situation. One that I cannot wait to see Greg keep unfolding for us.
With excellent characterization, plot and storytelling alongside some very highly stylized interior artwork Dark Horse opens the Dragon Age world further with this instant smash hit!