Collects issues 13 through 18
Writer: Ron Marz
Artist: Greg Land (p), Jay Leisten(i) with Aaron Lopresti (p) and Roland Paris (i) on chapter 17
Publisher: CrossGen Comics (ISBN 1-931484-65-1)
Volume three of CrossGen’s most beautifully illustrated series (in my humble opinion) settles into a pattern that hopefully will be varied upon as the series progresses. The quest is on to track down the five pieces of Ayden’s arrow so that the evil Mordath and his troll legions can be defeated once again and peace can reign in the kingdoms. Yeah, it sounds kind of silly when you say it like that, but really, it works. Each of the pieces has been hidden in a different part of the world, so each storyline will take our heroes Arwyn, the embittered but gorgeous widow who just happens to be an excellent archer, her dog Kreeg, and Gareth, a handsome, quit-witted, one-eyed archer, to different environments and lucky readers get to explore a variety of cultures and have a swashbuckling good time doing it.
Marz’s writing is witty and well-paced, and Land’s artwork... well if you haven’t seen it, then where have you been? If you like realistic artwork and sexy heroes then this is for you. Even the trolls are wonderful to look at. Plus, in one of the highlights of this volume, we get an insight into Troll culture that actually elevates them from being portrayed as mindless minions to being well-defined characters with quite a bit of depth – some of them anyway. This adventure takes our heroes to the conquered city of Ankhara, home of a race of winged warriors visually patterned on both African and Egyptian cultures. The occupation by Mordath’s forces has been a hard one and rebellion is brewing, but to tell you more than that would be naughty. Suffice to say, this series is consistently entertaining and well worth your time. One warning though: issue 17 is illustrated by another team of artists and really doesn’t stand up in comparison. This is a series that truly is the best of both worlds – writing and illustration. When either side slacks just a little, the whole project begins to falter. But on the plus side, at least Land only needs one month off from each year to recharge his battery. Considering the quality of the other eleven issues per year, one month off is not a problem at all. If only Brian Hitch could work at this speed.
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