Calum Petrie reviews The Spider King #2…
If you do not know what The Spider King is then let me try to explain. The adventures of viking tribes who are at war with one another are delivered a game changer when alien spaceships crash and deliver a whole arsenal of weapons and armour to change their way of life forever. The only thing is that, the aliens are still with their ships, and they don’t want their armoury to be raided.
The second issue focuses on three different groups as they come to grips with their new haul of loot. The young king finds hope and the means to arm himself and his people, the lone hunter stumbles across the empty ship finds the means to arm himself better, and the barbarian invader find his victory against the alien cost him more than his life.
The biggest stand out point to this series has to be the artwork. I have never quiet seen this art style being used. The characters are exaggerated and cartoon in appearance. In this issue the barbarian, Aarek the Wolf, is bargaining with the alien infection within him, he listens to the offer and submits himself to the claims of power and reputation. This sequence turns our cartoon styled artwork into a mind bending sequence of sharp angles and distorted faces, the abstract artwork shows the characters grasp on his own mind warping and submission sinking in. It was an extremely well drawn sequence and looking at the pages for five minutes still highlighted images not seen upon first viewing.
The story here is intriguing enough, and it will be interesting to see what happens in the subsequent issues.
Rating – 7/10
You can find me on Twitter – @Cetrie
