Dynamite Entertainment 2016
Written by Erik Mona
Illustrated by Jonathan Lau
Coloured by Omi Remalante
Lettered by Simon Bowland
Valeros the fighter, Seoni the sorcerer, Kyra the cleric, and Merisiel the rogue delve the sewers beneath the City of Secrets in search of their old enemy Thulgroon. They’re well prepared to face the psychic shapechanger for what they hope is the last time, but nothing can prepare them for the weird journey that will soon deliver them to a world of legendary warriors, deadly monsters, and foes more treacherous than any they have faced before!
Seoni takes center stage this issue as we focus on her transportation to the Worldscape. I have got to say that this is awfully darn good! I mean this is the ultimate mashup of worlds, characters and franchises in a RPG lovers dream come true. I mean this is the ultimate team-up within the various Dynamite franchises where else are you going to see the Pathfinder characters alongside the likes of Red Sonja, John Carter and Thun’Da and the various people that inhabit those worlds. Erik manages to weave a tale here that brings these characters that you’d never could meet into a scenario where not only they can but thrive together!
Erik not only gathers some eclectic characters this time around but his characterisation here is incredibly good as well. Seeing these rather diverse characters coming together and learning what they do while still being separated from the others, Seoni traveled here with some of her compatriots that will inevitably bring them all together is well done. The coming battle for the crown and the scepter is presented well and the big question remains now that we’re a couple issues in is on who’s side will each of them fall.
I’m a huge fan of Jonathan’s and what he can do with his interiors. The attention to detail here is fantastic to see and especially on Seoni. She has those tattoos that can be a painstaking thing to render correctly yet he and Omi do a marvelous job there. Not only that but the animals we see, two giant cats are spectacular and then there’s Tars Tarkas who has never looked so good in my humble opinion. The use of page layouts with angles, perspective and those intense backgrounds really bring this jungle they are in to life so beautifully.
The idea of the Worldscape is brought to life beautifully here as well. More so since it seems that any point in time of any world’s history is fair game. We see a big yellow school but stuck in a tree here so that you know that they can be plucked literally from anywhere. So that we’re getting so many heroes from so many different worlds the way that Erik is bringing them together continues to make the kind of sense that people often demand. It also means this Worldscape would be the perfect place that the characters from Pathfinder, or any of these worlds, to meet the heroes of say Masks would also make sense.
The imagination and creativity involved in bringing such a story to life is seemingly epic in it’s scope and has all the attention to detail in writing and artwork required to make so workably good. This is one of those that surprises you with how easily it can be explained then enjoyed that such diverse characters can coexist and work together from such vastly different realities.