The things our fathers tell us.
Creative Staff:
Story: Eric Heisserer
Art: Felipe Massafera
What They Say:
If Spry is to rescue his mother from the forces of the Caliphate, he’ll need to master his own newly discovered shape-shifting abilities. But Spry’s trainer may never finish teaching him because circumstances require her to infiltrate the heart of the enemy’s stronghold—with the Caliphate’s mightiest warrior waiting for her!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The first two installments of Shaper were definitely quite different in approach, though I found myself more interested in the book as a whole after the second and more linear issue with what it wanted to do. The series is one that plays to a larger galactic story, but it doesn’t have some deep foundational aspects in place to make it feel cohesive, which isn’t a surprise with how few issues there are. but it does play to a large sweeping feeling and there’s a lot of appeal in that, even if it does feel very loose and almost by the seat of your pants in a lot of aspects. Getting introduced to Spry in such an awkward fashion is part and parcel with stories like these, so it was easy to dig into the other areas and get the expansion from there.
Which is what a decent chunk of this book is about, as it delves into the history of Victus and the origins overall of his ability. Taking us back to his parents, where his father Faminus was able to see into the future well enough to be able to prepare for things, and it was intriguing to see how he sought out a woman of similar nature in order to give birth to a child that could truly guide things. The birth of Victus is something that didn’t go as planned though as his ability is quite different, at least in terms of the duration as it’s only about maybe a minute or so into the future that he sees. But for a darker and more dangerous mind, this is more than enough of an edge to deal with key problems in life, especially when you’re craving power. Because of the way this made him, it turns out that it was his father that set into motion the more dangerous events as he made up the long distance future vision that Victus would be defeated by a Shaper someday. Hence Victus killing as many as possible. The problem is that for Faminus, he thought Shapers were merely stories told to children, and he instead set off a chain of events that would lead to the death of many in his attempt to keep his son from going too far.
This expands on the motivations well and clears it up, which in turn allows us to focus on other events, such as seeing Spry attempting to learn how to master his abilities more and falling quite short – especially with a weak teacher helping him. Spry does get to grow a bit here as it goes on, but a lot of it is just seeing the crew as a whole working towards the goal, which has them going to meet up with a Navigator to get information that Basta needs. That’s the story point, but the real fun is in watching an experienced and capable Shaper like Basta at work here as she adjusts smoothly for situations and makes confident progress throughout the attack. We also get to see a bit with Spry’s mother, in the hands of the Caliphate, and doing her best to not give in to them but seeing so many killed because of it. it plays to familiar tones with the way it unfolds, at least for this old Star Wars fan.
In Summary:
The overall plot points are straightforward here as we essentially get a space opera series and that definitely works well enough, even if it doesn’t engage you fully. For a book like this, it’s the trappings that will do the wow. I had hoped for more in establishing the Caliphate and its presence in the universe, especially based on some of the early promotional artwork, but that’s fallen to the side a bit. The positive here is that we get some really good background material on Victus himself and why he is like he is, as well as the reasoning for the whole Shaper hunt. It’s one of those tragic pieces that can play well in most series and has the potential to do so depending on how it’s utilized from here on out. Spry himself has some goods scenes as he tries his best to learn what he is and how to be a Shaper, but for me it was the Faminus and Victus storyline that stole the book and made it a fun read since it added a lot of useful exposition that explains some key aspects of the series.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: May 20th, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
