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ADVANCE REVIEW: Dragon Age: Magekiller #1 (of 5)

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes

Dragon Age: Magekiller #1
Greg Rucka (W), Carmen Carnero (A), Sachin Teng (Cover)
On sale December 16

Swords and sorcery, Dungeons & Dragons, Allen: Son of Hellcock, Red Sonja and Conan;  the fantasy genre has evolved in comic books.  Here, self-confessed lover of role-playing games, Greg Rucka seems to be the perfect choice for this Bioware / EA Games tie-in.

The book pretty much starts in the middle of a situation.  This allows Rucka to introduce Marius and Tessa, specialists at killing mages.  Why is there a need to kill them?  That’s not really explained, although it seems that the need is there.  What follows is a further introduction into the lives of the brother and sister, some of which only leads to more questions.  Of course, this is a fantasy book so there has to be a quest, right? Here its walking back into the past to save children from being killed.  But as Tessa states early on, magic cheats.

Fans of Rucka may be slightly surprised at first, by this book.  However, if you read it through, you may find similarities to his other work.  There is a personal quest of sorts, a potential of “having” to do something.  Rucka uses a running dialogue to explain and educate the reader through the early pages, before the next quest is set up using both dialogue and monologue.

Art is supplied by Carmen Carnero who has worked across the comic book divide.  Here, her work fits well within the story, but doesn’t seem that different from the standard fare you’d see in books like Grimm Fairy Tales. The panel camera used can be explained as this is a fantasy book, the need to show the magic in play is a must.  I can’t leave the art without saying, this book features a gorgeous cover by Sachin Teng, which is worth the price of admission  by itself.

I think I have said this before, I am not much of a gamer, as such I don’t have a great knowledge of this particular universe.  That’s a good thing as I can look at the book without comparing to the source material.  As such, for me there isn’t anything that special about the book.  I have no affiliation to any of the characters meaning that at this stage, I am not really interested by their predicament, meaning that as creators, Rucka and Carnero have failed to grasp my attention.  Although this may well be different for fans of the game.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Author Profile

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes
I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow

Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network
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