Dinosaurs, knights, and writer Dan Abnett (pretty much the godfather of the Guardians of the Galaxy movie) walk into a comic…and you’re not gonna blind buy it?!
Alright, fine. We’ll check it out for you first. Is it good?
Dark Ages #1 (Dark Horse Comics)
This story takes place in 1333 and follows a bunch of knights who have nothing to do and not much to eat. They’re hoping for a war, but fat chance of that happening.
Be careful what you wish for: The main character is the captain of this lot and he’s pretty negative when it comes to God and his cavalry’s plight. They don’t have much to eat and morale is low. Suddenly, in the nights sky, a bunch of stars start twinkling which spooks the horses and the men. Asteroids, are they asteroids, start belting the ground around them and…giant dinosaur looking monsters start attacking! Say what?!
Dan Abnett writes a pretty awesome premise into this comic, but as far as excitement and pace the comic is lacking. It takes 7 pages to get to the action, and all the prior pages are primarily narration of a very negative captain. How God fits into all this remains to be seen — I’m sure some folk will assume the dinosaurs are from the heavens, but what hurts this book is how unmemorable the captain is. He’s morose and tired, and that’s about all I got from the entire book. You don’t root for him, nor care much about him, which hurts the sustainability of the opening pages.
Before every moment there’s a moment.
Though the character work is lacking the last third of the book brings things full circle. By issue’s end you’ll want to know what the deal is with the threat, why there’s some raving lunatic monks about and how our captain will change now that he has a war to call his own.
Artist I. N. J. Culbard does a good job and it’s very Walter Simonson in nature; illustrative and sketch like with not quite as much detail. It gives the book a realistic vibe even though the characters are less detailed. The final cliffhanger splashpage will most definitely sell you on buying the next issue.
Great balls of fire!
Is It Good?
This is a great first issue if you’re looking for a cool premise and interesting cast of characters. Unfortunately it’s weak on character concerning the main protagonist so far and it’ll be hard to care all that much.
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