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.

Codebreakers #3 – Review

By: Ross Richie (creator), Carey Malloy (writer), Scott Godlewski (art), Stephen Downer (colors) & Johnny Lowe (letters)

The Story: The team of CIA hacker/agents continues to try to rescue their kidnapped team-member Stan and we learn more about team-leader Foster’s past with the villain.

What’s Good: “Well, it isn’t bad.”  Honestly, there’s nothing about this series that just lunges out at me as being stink-o and sometimes that is an achievement in itself.  Usually with a poor espionage comic, I can see the plot twists coming a mile away.  Codebreakers delivers twists that were not expected.  I wouldn’t call them “shocking,” but I’ve read enough of these style books that it takes some cleverness to keep me off balance.  I don’t really want to divulge the twists too much here because it will defeat the purpose of reading the comic yourself, but let’s just say that we learn more about the code that Stan is asked to crack and Foster’s past.

The art is star of this 4-issue series for me.  Godlewski does a really nice job of giving all the characters a distinct look and changes styles effectively on the flashback pages.  I would also say that his style is very appropriate for an espionage story.  I really don’t need to see the pinnacle of JH Williams-style zaniness in an espionage comic (although saying that, I’m sure Mr. Williams could make me eat my words).  It would be nice if more artists went in for self-contained art that tells the story!

Codebreakers #1 – Review

By: Ross Richie (creator), Carey Malloy (writer), Scott Godlewski (art), Stephen Downer (colors) & Brett Weldele

Story: A group of U.S. government codebreakers try to stop the bad guys while dealing with the threat to one of their own.

What’s Good: The creators do a nice job of establishing this team of codebreakers.  We’ve got the brilliant/precocious guy, the geeky/attractive girl, the crusty old man and the mid-career veteran leader.  It may be a little cliche, but I think this is a stereotypical team for a reason: because it creates good drama.  It’s a classic setup where you can’t help but like how they gave each person on the team a complimentary specialty.

The story starts slow, but really picks up towards the ends when [minor spoiler alert] one of the team members goes missing in an apparent suicide.  Things really improve a lot as they show the leader of the team deciphering that it wasn’t a suicide, but an abduction made to look like a suicide.  [cue dramatic music]

This is an espionage book and the art is appropriate: it’s solid and helps the story but doesn’t shoot for flashy.  It helps that each team member has a very unique look, so the art never gets confusing which could be a problem for a book where everyone is talking about codes.