Emotive art creates a fantasy world of jeopardy
Creative Staff:
Story: Justin Jordan
Art: Eleonora Carlini
Colors: Silvia Tidei
Letterer: Marshall Dillon
What They Say:
As Anna and Coyote Bones continue to search for Sylvia in the Backways, they are being stalked by something dangerous—the Morning Wolf is on the hunt!
From Justin Jordan (STRAYER, Green Lantern: New Guardians) and Eleonora Carlini (Batgirl, Doctor Who) comes the BRAND NEW series of magic, mystery and mayhem that is sure to appeal to fans of Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Backways fantasy began with the disappearance of Sylvia who is being sought out by Anna in the Backways, a place where creatures with magical knacks live in a separate world from humanity. In issues 1 and 2, Anna has arrived in the Backways and is being helped by Coyote Bones, a character without any knack. Anna has faced her first enemy and defeated him. Now the Quorum, the directors of the Backways, have sent creatures to seek her out. While their purpose is not known, it seems the world is against Anna.
Issue 3 enters in with a werewolf-ish creature tracking Anna. The creature tracks Anna to the scene of her last confrontation and then follows her to the Graveyard of the Desolate. We learn that a war took place in the ‘70’s that nearly destroyed the Backways. Anna and Sylvia represent a threat of something like that happening in the future. It seems the Quorum and their associate Wendy have made arrangements to stop Anna from continuing with her search.
Over the first three issues, Backways has been heavily built on exposition. We continually learn about the history, the setting, and the powers. If anything, this has been handled through character narration to the point that the narrative feels clumsy. But we always come around to the action sequences, and they rock the page with epic levels of action and characters rooted so firmly in the scene, the story hardly matters. Eleonora Carlini’s art drives the world more than the story at this early stage. She positions her characters in motion, vibrating with the energy and resisting gravity. Even as the story slowly unfolds, the characters bob and weave through the world with mercurial kinetic energy. Silvia Tidei’s colors punctuate each scene and expertly blend the setting with the action. Visually, the comic feels like a tour-de-force, even as the narrative seems bogged down in world building.
It almost feels like the creators are trying to live up to the publisher’s connections to Harry Potter and Chronicles of Narnia. Both series were epic, but they were built on thousands of pages of text. A comic just has to find other ways to develop. This is the second issue where I read through the first time and feel it has awkward pacing, then I go back and look at the panels and feel a momentum that carries to the end.
In Summary:
Backways remains visually energetic. The narrative structure slows it down, but readers looking for a teenage, female antihero should check it out. Since the title is trying desperately to build the world as quickly as possible, readers can hope that it will soon find a balance between the text and action. For now, it has to depend on the visuals to provide the energy and develop the characters in this magical world.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 9+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: February 28th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99