“So we’re stuck on board this rather claustrophobic, but admittedly reasonably well-appointed, lightning rail with a sadistic murderer for the next 24 hours?”
It’s Eberron alright.
Written by Paul Crilly
Illustrated by Paco Diaz and Atilio RojoThey call Sharn the ‘City of Towers’… but it’s what’s below the surface that interests Abraxis Wren, the most notorious inquisitive in the land. As Wren and his assistant Torin begin an investigation that pulls at the strings that bind the city together, it’s their own lives that might unravel! Writer Paul Crilley continues spinning tales in the exciting world of Eberron, following up last month’s Infestation 2 crossover–joined by hot artist Paco Diaz (Wolverine)–in this double-sized, all-new annual!
The Eberron setting of Dungeons & Dragons is unique. Created by Keith Baker, it attempts to use the standard trappings of Dungeons & Dragons, and fantasy in general – elves, wizards, dwarves, druids – in a way that is different from everything that came before. Whether or not it succeeded in being completely unique, Baker’s attempt at fusing pulp fiction with high fantasy resulted in a tone that is unmistakeable – and a tone that writer Paul Crilley has down quite well. Within the first two pages of the issue, Crilley gets down everything that a new reader needs to know about the setting, and then launches into a story that fits the setting like a glove: the protagonists, an elf detective and his dwarf servant, are stuck on a lightning rail train and have to solve a murder mystery before they, too, are killed. Crilley knows that a story set in a previously established setting relies more on tone than it does on name-dropping and other superficial details, and he captures the wild, exciting action and intrigue that is synonymous with an Eberron game quite well.
The character interactions are what make this comic – while the story is certainly fun, it is also a bit unevenly paced, but Abraxis the elf and Torin the dwarf have many entertaining bits of banter that help carry the reader through the story. Abraxis may be a bit of an annoying and conceited character, but he’s both a believable and an entertaining one; there are far too many instances where a writer tries to make a character annoying or grating and instead makes them wholly unbelievable, and Crilley avoids falling into this common trap. Abraxis even has a nice character moment near the end that makes him seem more three-dimensional, and that shows that his demeanor may be more of an act than anything else. Torin, on the other hand, is slightly more plain as a character, but serves as an entertaining foil to Abraxis in a few situations. The dialogue is witty, and often humorous, but there are a few moments when it becomes obvious that Crilley is trying to be clever, rather than letting it happen naturally. These, however, are balanced out by the handful of truly humorous moments, a few of which are sure to make the reader laugh out loud.
The art, split between Paco Diaz and Atilio Rojo, is a slight step above what you would expect from your average licensed property comic. Diaz’s larger panels are finely detailed and composed, especially during the opening sequence, but as the panels close in, both artists lose a bit more detail than would be expected. It’s not that their art is ever bad, though; instead, it just comes off as a bit plain. Diaz in particular has some very solid moments of panel-to-panel motion, though a few of his action scenes could benefit from some panel resizing. The two certainly have different styles, but they’re similar enough that the visual conformity is not broken; a casual read-through is not going to be affected by the difference, though one would easily notice if they switched back and forth between the two artists – especially in heavily shadowed scenes, in which the two artists take very different stylistic approaches.
As fun as this comic is, though, the price is steep. $7.99 for 40 story pages is even poorer of a deal than Marvel’s $3.99, 22-page books. To compare, “Dark Horse” is also $7.99, but contains literally twice as much story pages. To be fair, this does not include the seven page (eight, if we’re being generous) preview of an upcoming Eberron novel, but that’s the kind of thing that one would normally expect to be free – rarely do comics including a preview for a new series increase their price for the extra preview pages. And, in this case, there is even less of an incentive: first, this is just a one-and-done, not a current ongoing, and so the inclusion of the preview and the heftier price tag make it less likely for someone to pick this comic up; second, this is a comic, not a novel or collection of short prose stories, and it makes little sense for the reader looking for a comic to pay extra for something they are not looking for and very well may not be interested in.
This comic would be an excellent example of a worthy impulse buy – a fun, but not spectacular, story in a setting that twists many standard fantasy trappings – but the price tag prevents this comic from being enticing to all but the Eberron enthusiast. With “Infestation 2: Dungeons and Dragons” featuring the same characters, it seems like IDW is pushing to give writer Paul Crilley his own Ebberon-based ongoing, while at the same time trying to nip it in the bud with an almost inexcusable price tag.
Final Verdict: 6.5 – It’s fun, but only buy it if you need your Eberron fix.
