Ben Rayner reviews Dark Souls #1…
Welcome to the world of Dark Souls; a landscape bathed in arcane fantasy, where primordial forces govern the tides of time, bonfires flicker in the darkness, and the undead stalk the earth in search of impossible redemption. From Titan Comics and Doctor Who scribe, George Mann, comes this original tale of adventure and visceral horror that throws readers deep into the twisted myth of Namco-Bandai’s award-winning video-game franchise.
SEE ALSO: Check out a preview of Dark Souls #1
It’s no secret that Dark Souls is a franchise based on a difficulty slope so punishing that most people throw their hands in the air and controller out the window within it’s first few hours.
You only need to look across the plethora of memes alluding to how many orifices it’ll happily ruin on your long journey to see the way fans both fervently love and hate the experience.
What often goes understated however is the games rich story. Should you have the balls, time, mental stability and more to push onwards, you’ll find that its deep and dense but it’s also as hidden within the games subtext as your average porn folder and requires some seriously time consuming extraction much to the level of a Dentist pulling teeth.
This isn’t a criticism mind you, it’s something I truly love about the game but something which left me curious as to how it could be adapted into a comic, unless they went down the route of a ‘Where’s Wally: Dark souls Edition’ experience. Now that I’ve said it out loud, that’s probably not an awful idea but not quite the comic we deserve.
Fortunately George Mann has gone the more traditional route and from the offset laid out some solid characters with the beginnings of a rich store ripe for exploration and character expansion. Perhaps something that not all Dark Souls fans will be used to, but a take I can easily many enjoying.
The first issue focuses on the knight Fira and her quest to retrieve the ‘Tooth of Andolus’, a powerful and suitably mythic artefact that was extracted from an ancient dragon by a selfish Baron who sought to cure himself of affliction and banish the undying from his land only to suffer a more cursed fate and end up fleeing into a life of solitude and hermitry.
Fira is instantly a fierce and memorable lead character. Both an imposing and strong warrior, who leaps out of the page Game of Thrones nuts will no doubt get a Brienne of Tarth vibe from this headstrong Warrior.
With hints at a horrible fate having befallen her, she appears tough on the surface, perhaps even unlikable in places thanks to a forked tongue, but intriguing none the less, as the loss of her family and expulsion from the Knights Order are begging to be explored further.
Joining her for the ride, because every Indy needs a Short Round, is a Scryer named Aldrich who for me is an odd mix of companion/captive thanks to some death threats blended subtly with kind words. Sadly for the moment Aldrich doesn’t exude the same charisma or offer as much intrigue and depth as Fira but hopefully he’ll be a more utilised force in further issues.
It’s a quest, which is almost too briefly over, although ever the narrator, Aldrich is quick to mention Fira’s next stepping-stone in her journey, the Everlord.
As excited as I am, and trust me that I am, the possibility that each issue leads to a fresh enemy encounter that is over in a brief few pages worries me a little, especially coming from a game that prides itself on enemies that take time to defeat and more than a single shot to master.
This is however a minor niggle born from my longing for more while Mann and Quah have clearly adopted a quality over quantity approach.
Now, the artwork, without getting too gushy, is simply perfect. From the moment I opened the pages and absorbed the excellent detail and beautiful colour work, my expectations were met and surpassed. Both stunning and gruesome in equal measure, Quah has captured the tone and aesthetic of this fascinatingly dark and brooding series perfectly.
From the start each page drips with a colourful rendition of impending doom and hopelessness, as each character is crafted with details that give life to some fully realised characters. The way they jump off the page gave me some nostalgic reminders of reading old Conan comics.
Fights are bold, blood thirsty and impressively harsh, again backed up by artwork that really makes you feel like this could be a brawl ripped literally from screen to paper with an almost identical dance in battle and the potential for horrendous twists in future issues.
It’s a solid start to the story and definitely an enjoyable chapter, which sadly feels all too brief. There’s huge potential for character development and room to make battles last longer, extended the blood loss and brutality but for now, I’m interested and hooked, waiting on the next chapter which is just about the highest compliment I can give.
Ben Rayner
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