An impossible horde.
Creative Staff:
Story: Gail Simone
Art: Sergio Davila
What They Say:
As the epic era-spanning tale rockets towards conclusion, reluctant heroines find themselves facing terrifying alternate versions of themselves on the road to the ultimate showdown with the Prince Of All Worlds. Can even the combined forces of Kato, Red Sonja, Dejah Thoris, Vampirella, Jungle Girl, Lady Zorro and dozens more save reality? Join us for the penultimate chapter in what critics are calling the best crossover event of the summer!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With a slow but steady build to bring the group together to face off against the Prince and the army that he’s built, Swords of Sorrow has definitely been an interesting event to follow. The side books that works to establish the connections between various pairings has mostly worked so that when we get to an installment like this where it’s being lead by the three main characters of prophecy, their putting others in charge and organizing things works because of the ripple effect of connections that have been established. There’s not a lot in the way of bickering or complaints but rather a simple understanding of ability and competence. That helps to keep things smooth, though not problem free of course.
What we get with events here is a moving forward and understanding of the world that they’re in now, or at least the basics of it since it’s a patchwork world of different locales that we’ve seen drawn from some of the miniseries themselves. The general layout is as you’d expect with the Prince on one side and the Traveler and what she’s protecting on the other. The nice change is that the Traveler comes down to get involved herself and fills everyone in on the basics at this point, bringing us all up to speed in a quick and clear way to set the stage for the rumble to come. This issue is really all about the calm before the storm, setting up the do or die mission and putting the main trio on their mission to defeat the Prince while everyone else is protecting the castle. Not an elaborate mission to be sure but it’s one that’s laid out clearly and works for the situation at hand.
The fun comes in the interactions of the characters. A good chunk is given to Jana being put into a position of power by Sonja only to feel overwhelmed by it. Her self doubt works in the face of what’s coming and that as good as she is, well, she’s not ready for what’s happening. Her internal dialogue gives her a bit more humanity and certainly makes her accessible. The bulk of the cast fall into line though, outside of some minor but very in-character sniping among the main trio, and seeing them take to the challenge ahead works pretty well. And it’s quite a challenge as the Prince has set up a strong army to raid the castle to save his princess. But even all the effort won’t distract him from some sexytimes as he gets a little devilishly good fun with her before things get serious. It’s all a little anti-climactic in a way, to get here after five issues and have it all lead to one big battle so quickly, but when you factor in all the supporting series and fights there it takes on a greater, if sprawling, form to it.
In Summary:
The penultimate issue of Swords of Sorrow is a solid one throughout as Gail Simone manages the various character narratives in an engaging way even if it’s just a line or two that they get. It brings everything into focus, spends a good bit of time on the main trio with it split between them and it surprisingly lets Jana take a good bit of the spotlight along the way too. The end result is a fast moving but dialogue heavy book that puts us right into the thick of things for the finale. Sergio Davila has certainly captured the look of the wide ranging cast well and does what he can to provide for a good series of layouts with them, going more for close-ups for a lot of it in order to bring more of the characters in. I still get frustrated by the coloring used on Dynamite’s books, particularly in digital form, and wish more of his artwork wasn’t covered in heavy black in far too many places.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: September 9th, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
