Elric: The Balance Lost #1 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), Francesco Biagnini (artist), Stephen Downer (colorist), Shannon Watters (assistant editor), Matt Gagnon (editor), Michael Moorcock (creator)

The Story: Eric, a game designer, dreams he’s an albino sorceror prince called Elric, travelling through worlds overrun by chaos. At the same time, on another world, Hawkmoon, a retired warrior, finds out that an ancient enemy may be returning. Simultaneously, Corum, last prince of the Vadhagh, returns home to find a deathless companion in a tight spot. A war is brewing between war and chaos and Eric is at the center of it.

What’s Good: This series is for Elric fans, but also of Moorcock’s not-as-famous-but-still-quite-awesome other creations such as Prince Corum. Roberson captures the feel of Elric and even Corum (who, in my mind, is a more subtle character, and tougher to encapsulate). Roberson is ably assisted by Biagnini who has tough shoes to fill, as this is not the first time that Moorcock’s genius has been brought to comics. Many artists have tried to depict Moorcock’s spooky, eerie, unstable multiverse, most notably P. Craig Russell, but Biagnini brings the chaotic madness to life in not only to the plane where Elric is trapped (check out some of the monstrosities and the dismemberments), but the Corum’s supposedly normal homecoming, where the horror is not in the monsters, but in the behavior of the decrepit humans.

I think that Roberson launched issue #1 with momentum, as we have the mystery of the connectedness of Corum, Elric, Hawkmoon and Eric to unravel and each of these four is facing an impending disaster. The dialogue is tight, and changes style for each character: cynical and tense for Eric, noble and understated for Corum, bitterly self-aware for Elric, warmly familial for Hawkmoon and rabidly fascist for Garrison Bow (Eric’s brother). And while we don’t have all the information we want, Roberson delivers what we need, so our questions will pull us back for issue #2.

Elric: The Lost Balance #0 – Review

By: Chris Roberson (writer), Francesco Biagini (artist), Stephen Downer (colorist), Michael Moorcock (creator)

The Story: It’s hard to call this a story. It was more of a prologue and introduction to the world of Elric, for free, courtesy of BOOM! Studios on free comic book day. Elric is lost in some sort of planar waste, and is delivered a call to action by an agent of balance in the form of a crow.

The Review: I am an Elric fan and the more I reread Moorcock, the more I realize what a powerful influence he was on my writing. His concept of the eternal hero, as well as the concepts of the albino prince with the cursed sword, the fifteen planes of existence, the Lords of Law and Chaos, are all top shelf, first class fantasy ideas. I don’t think that Moorcock’s ideas have really permeated fantasy, in that many other authors are inheriting them or reacting to them, but I think that this is because his worlds and universes are so dark, original and disturbing. For that reason, I am absolutely thrilled that BOOM! is doing Elric. He’s perfect for the serial medium form of comics.

What BOOM! offers us here is not much of a story, but a teaser. A mature, jaded Elric, the albino sorcerer, is lost elsewhere and else when, and can’t get home. Fortunately, he is attacked, providing souls for his cursed vampiric sword to consume so that it may strengthen him enough to cast a spell to go home. However, the Lords of Law and Chaos, never far from Elric, beckon him through an agent. Elric has a choice. Roberson uses this as an opportunity to introduce readers to Moorcock’s multiverse and the various forms of the eternal champion. It’s a taste, but it left me eager for more.