Even though Batman and Justice League books seem like the only sure game in town, DC Comics continues to take chances on genre books. Does “Sword of Sorcery” have what it takes to keep readers coming back for more?
Written by Christy Marx
Illustrated by Aaron Lopresti
Backup written by Tony Bedard
Backup Illustrated by Jesus Saiz– In this new series featuring the long-awaited return of AMETHYST, Amy Winston leads a strange life on the road with her mother. She’s about to learn why it’s all been necessary when she discovers she’s the lost princess of Gemworld – and has powerful enemies hunting her!
– AMETHYST is written by Christy Marx, best known for her work on animated TV series including G.I. Joe, Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and more, as well as the comics series Sisterhood of Steel.
– And in the backup story set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, the monstrous warrior BEOWULF is charged with finding and defeating the evil Grendel.
The key to the Amethyst portion of “Sword of Sorcery” is how quickly it takes us through a formula that works. Amy Winston is your classic high school “weird girl”, sporting purple, blue & black hair, which naturally acts as repellant for her peers. There’s nothing groundbreaking about an unpopular girl who thinks she’s a freak, but Christy Marx is careful not to steep it in too much melodrama. The opening pages concern the bullying of outcasts and Amy’s desire to escape this life and learn the truth about her “real” home. A promise made to her to be fulfilled on her 17th birthday. It’s presented as a bit of a cliche, but the prelude is pretty brisk and doesn’t overstay its welcome before sending Amy to Gemworld and dialing up the fantasy.
Marx rounds out the cast of characters nicely, with villains and heroes whose motivations make sense and are clearly defined. Family seems like its going to be a theme going forward, and the characterization of Amy’s mother makes a significant impression in relatively few pages. Amy’s mother is physically training her for the trials she’ll face in Gemworld: battle armor, sword, and all. In these scenes, she establishes herself as a loving mother and a powerful figure of womanhood – a welcome addition to the gender equality oft-desired in modern comics.
Tony Bedard’s Beowulf backup is equally solid. Beowulf is written as a brutish hulk of a man in a soldier-for-hire situation. At the same time, he’s an appealing character to read by not being overly angsty or dour. He’s a mean dude, but he’ll happily play for your team if you ask him the right way. Right off the bat there’s some interesting moral conflict in how he deals with the men he’ll eventually work for. It was unexpected and makes the introduction to a chaotic neutral character all the more unsettling. As a backup, we only get a taste of what’s to come and it doesn’t feel like it’s enough. This is a story that would benefit from being just as long as “Amethyst”, if not a book all its own.
As competent as the stories are at whisking the reader through their introductions, the art is the true standout of “Sword of Sorcery.” Both Aaron Lopresti and Jesus Saiz are doing some of the best work of their careers. Lopresti did solid, but unmemorable cape-book work in the sorely unmemorable “Justice League International.” Here, his line shows more fluidity and his designs show more imagination. When we’re taken to Gemworld, the colors begin to pop in an eye-catching array of purples and yellows. It’s Saiz who steals the show, however, by putting detail into his panels that we’ve never really seen from him before. His work on “Birds of Prey” featured handsomely rendered characters that handled the fast paced action well, but the settings felt a bit sterile or flat at times. Here, he renders the lush, snowy surroundings with detail as lovingly as the characters. Beowulf himself has an inspired design, making him into an imposing beast. The trembling that he invokes in the other characters is clearly visible and inherent in Saiz’ design for him. The “apocalyptic future” promised by the solicitation could have easily been corny or felt out of place in a fantasy book, but it is instead sold very well by Saiz’ designs. It’s like if you dropped classic fantasy literature into Crystalis for the original NES if that means anything to you, then you’ll know how cool that is. (And it means that you’re cool too.)
If there are any major problems with “Sword of Sorcery”, they lie in the fact that these books really couldn’t be more opposed to one another from a tonal standpoint. Yes, they’re both fantasy tales, but that’s where the similarities end. Amethyst is a bright comic full of humor and spectacle, while “Beowulf and Grendel” is a dark, snow-covered tale with some relatively mature content. These books would work wonderfully as separate 20-page issues, but go together like peanut butter and pizza. (Apologies to you weirdos that maybe like that sort of thing.) There’s a lot to like in both of them, but for completely different reasons.
Final Verdict: 7.5 – Check it out. Chances are good that you’ll enjoy at least one of the stories, if not both.
