The second issue of Dark Horse’s new Dragon Age miniseries, Knight Errant, arrives this week. Set in the world of the Dragon Age video game universe, KE follows the exploits of the squire Vaea as she accompanies the knight Ser Aaron from town to town. As it turns out, being a squire isn’t Vaea’s only occupation as she is also an accomplished thief, for which being a squire is a perfect cover. This issue sees Vaea trying to protect her identity, while revisiting the events that led to her current situation.
Writer: Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir
Artist: Fernando Heinz Furukawa
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Last issue wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anything we haven’t seen before. There was the nimble Elf who happened to be a thief, and the blowhard knight who seems so self absorbed with his own heroic stories that he doesn’t even notice his squire’s double life. There also wasn’t much going on in terms of plot development, as this was the introductory issue and most of the time was spent setting the table. The ending showed another elf witnessing Vaea’s robbery and attempting to blackmail her in the name of the “Inquisition,” a name that will be familiar to those that played Bioware’s last Dragon Age game. You can’t set the bar too high for a number 1, as there is a limited amount of real estate to both establish characters and set them on their way, so I was curious if the second issue could step up its game.
It turns out issue #2 didn’t immediately pick up the thread at the end of the last issue, which turned out to be a good thing. Vaea outright refuses to go along with the blackmail, involving her breaking two Inquisition members out of a prison, and instead says she will take care of herself. A smart idea by the writers, as this gave them time to let Vaea’s character breathe a little bit. The rest of the comic jumps back and forth between the present day, as she desperately tries to get a drunk Ser Aaron to wake up so they can leave before she is apprehended for her burglary the night before, and to the past when she was a small child and her parents were killed for participating in a rebellion.
Vaea’s background is well established here and you can see the events that led to her current situation. It was also interesting that they showed how she became Ser Aaron’s squire, which revealed he may not be as full of hot air as he seems. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn he that he’s not quite as ignorant of Vaea’s double life, but that’s just speculation at this point. The other half of the book, set in the present, provides plenty of action as the knight Vaea had made a deal with to commit the robbery for comes looking for his loot. During the fight the comic jumps back and forth between the past and the ongoing battle, showing similar situations, which added a nice touch.
I’m still not in love with the art, but the facial expressions didn’t look as weirdly comic as they did in a few panels last issue. Maybe it has more to do with the setting, but there weren’t any scenes that jumped out at me and made an impression. Perhaps when the action moves out of the city we’ll get some better backgrounds and landscapes. For now, the art is just average to me and doesn’t particularly stand out as a highlight.
Is It Good?
It’s better than issue number 1. Vaea seemed too familiar in the introductory issue, so going back to the events that set her on her path to both burglary and becoming a squire is interesting. The fight breathed some excitement into the latter half, which picked up the pacing and made me enjoy the book more as a whole. Hopefully this trend will continue with the next issue and throughout the rest of the series.
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