It’s time for another “Pathfinder” campaign, by which I mean a new series for the ongoing comic. The creative team has been mixed up but the adventuring party remains the same. And as an added bonus, we also get to look at a backup comic featuring Paizo’s newest RPG, “Starfinder.”
Written by Crystal Frasier (main) and Erik Mona (backup)
Illustrated by Tom Garcia (main) and Diego Galindo (backup)
Colored by Morgan Hickman (main) and Mohan (backup)
Lettered by Thomas NapolitanoAs the Pathfinder plunge into the history and mysteries below Kaer Maga-the no-holds-barred ‘City of Strangers’-Valeros plunges far deeper into the great beyond, defending his immortal soul in the courts of the dead! From Pathfinder author Crystal Frasier comes this scintillating tale of life, death, and what lingers when we’re gone.
Bonus: Starfinder backup story! Thousands of years in Pathfinder’s future, the Starfinder Society spreads adventure across the solar system!
The “Pathfinder” comics, a long-running series based off the iconic characters from the tabletop RPG’s handbooks, has been a treat for fans of the game. The characters tend to fill their proper roles in any given adventuring party — Valeros the fighter, Merisiel the rogue, Ezren the wizard, and so on — but the characters were developed and fleshed out very well during Jim Zub’s run and developed further when other writers took over, so we have a band of well-developed adventurers and characters with proper stories behind them.
As such, writer Crystal Frasier is unafraid to start the series off right in the thick of action, with Valeros fighting a troll in the streets. That is a fantastic way to launch a new run, establishing the characters, the world, and even how well it reflects the game’s mechanics (such as the troll regenerating from attacks that don’t involve fire).
Right off the bat, we get some fine artwork from Tom Garcia as well. The crowded scene in the very first page is filled with personality, with the towering city that seems cobbled together on top of itself, the raging troll, the crowd of onlookers, and, a personal favorite touch, Merisiel’s facepalm as Valeros gets dragged into another fight.
Though the fight itself doesn’t last long, Tom Garcia’s illustrations remains strong throughout, accompanied by Morgan Hickman’s color work. There’s nice detail and real personality in every scene: goblins in the tavern, the ominous green glow of a teleportation circle, and the beautiful otherworldly scene on the final page all add to the fantasy feel and overall tone of this world.
When it comes to the characters, the artwork is fine as well. The designs are all very distinct, using the artwork from the Pathfinder Players Handbook as their base, and they run the gamut from muscular human fighters to nimble elves to stocky dwarf rangers to a half-orc inquisitor. It would be very hard to confuse any of these characters, and when we get close ups on any of them, Tom Garcia puts a nice level of detail into their expressions.
I still have to question why there’s a single panel with a shot angled upwards to see Seoni in such a way as to show maximum cleavage but, all things considered, it’s the only real moment of cheese, so while it does stand out for that, it’s forgivable.
When the action picks up, we get some great monster designs. The combat is illustrated well, though it does tend to cut from attack to attack so quickly that there isn’t much impact behind each blow, save for the moments where it really needs it. In those scenes, Morgan Hickman’s use of red shading brings the moment and the violence to its fullest.
Story-wise, well, it’s a tabletop RPG adventure. It does continue with some story threads from the “Runescars” arc, as the party is researching Thassilonian magic, but while that does link the stories, it’s not necessary for new readers to know when they pick up the comic.
Crystal Frasier, herself a Paizo employee, knows how to build up an adventure well. Harsk and Ezren go on a nice little dungeon crawl, complete with mysterious runes and unexpected teleportation, while the other characters get time to breathe and explain the quest to Imrijka (and, by extension, the readers).
Continued belowImrijka herself is a new addition to the party, though also an existing Pathfinder character from the “Iconic Heroes” series and the game’s rulebooks. She gets a great introduction, breaking up Valeros’s fight with the troll with a properly dramatic entrance and effective negotiating skills, and is quickly integrated into the party thanks to a shared backstory with Valeros. As far as character goes, we get a good understanding of her personality; the deity she worships, her familiarity with the City of Strangers, and as an added bonus, a strong hint at bisexuality. I love the amount of representation the “Pathfinder” comics have been providing: Kyra and Merisiel are an adorable same-sex couple, and it’s only a matter of time before we see Shardra, the iconic shaman and trans-woman dwarf.
Every character, new and old alike, gets a few nice lines of dialogue here and there. We get Valeros disproving a prophecy saying “your grandmother sings your praises in the boneyard” not because his grandmother isn’t dead (she is) but because she’d never say anything kind about her, the tail-end of Harsk’s long-winded swears, ending in “and wax yer beard with yer own arse,” and even a bit of insights into the (often short) life of an adventurer.
All in all, it sets up the next arc very nicely, and I look forward to seeing where the journey takes them.
After the last page, we get a very brief (four pages) comic for “Starfinder,” a sci-fi/fantasy RPG that’s essentially “Pathfinder IIIIINNN SPAAAAACE.” There’s no time for establishing the world (“world” being used loosely here, as it is in space), and the characters are only introduced through their actions in the moment. Even with that, though, we get some nice character designs from Diego Galindo, and writer Erik Mona paces the story quickly enough that we get a quick introduction to three characters, understand their purpose, and get the last-page surprise.
Perhaps “Starfinder” would work better as its own full-length comic, but that will have to wait until later. Until now, the backup comic serves as a decent introduction to the world of “Starfinder,” and as a bonus backup after the “Pathfinder: Spiral of Bones” issue, I certainly won’t complain.
Final Verdict: 7.7 – A strong start for the new creative team, with good character moments, story building, and artwork throughout. It’s shaping up to be another exciting addition to the “Pathfinder” story, and the extra “Starfinder” comic is a nice touch.
