A pissed-off Owen is a delight to watch.
Creative Staff:
Story: Michael Moreci
Art: Nathan Gooden
Colors: Addison Duke
Letterer: Jim Campbell
What They Say:
Everything’s gone to sh*t. But what else is new for a barbarian cursed to do good, who has to follow the commands of a bloodthirsty axe? It’s just that today’s a little worse. With Owen’s back against the wall, and his enemies eager to chop him to bits, things are looking especially grim as the first arc of BARBARIC comes to a close.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The discovery of this series is one that delivered a lot of what I was looking for in something like a classic sword and sorcery piece but modernized in the right spots. I’ve enjoyed a number of projects from Michael Moreci over the last few years and working this story around just three issues really makes it stand out all the more, even knowing there’s a range of projects coming out for it next year. Nathan Gooden and Addison Duke are on board for the artwork for it and through them, we get some fantastic character designs and a great sense of power to it overall that really delivers. There is a ton of material here and it works incredibly well to deliver a cohesive, coherent, and engaging world to sink our teeth into.
With this installment wrapping up this first “book” of the series, it’s pretty much third act material but that delights because the book is so much fun in its action design. For Owen, he is struggling a bit because Soren has been taken over at this point and he’s intent on doing right by her after she related her story about how everyone basically abandoned her before. Even the Axe is telling him that he may have to kill her because she’s pretty committed to killing him with how she’s been taken over by the snake guy’s magic at this point. She’s got a touch of her personality it seems, which makes it worse, but it says a lot about Owen that even though he practically just met her that he feels strongly enough to not eliminate her and just be done with the whole situation.
The fight that unfolds is really nicely done as we get some creative moments where Owen uses the axe to achieve his goals. There’s a fair bit of tension that comes from the heavy exposition of the enemy that we get but once Owen gets serious and starts flinging the Axe all over the place, which eventually helps to free Soren from the control she’s under, it’s just a whole lot of very fun chaos. It’s no surprise that he wins in the end after facing such an enormous beast, but we do get some decent epilogue material at the end that helps to cement the team that Owen and Soren have found themselves to be. Of course, we also get a nod to what the next storyline is with a bit of Owen’s past coming back to find him and needing his help because, well, vampires. Gotta love vampires.
In Summary:
Barbaric was a wonderful breath of fresh air when it began but it was also incredibly nostalgic at the same time to some of my 80s and 90s comic origins. Owe may just be a barbarian but there’s plenty of nuance to him and then the whole curse thing itself. The axe is the perfect delight and I really liked how Soren was integrated into things so that while you do get sexy moments, that’s ht the main focus. I’m excited to see what the future holds for this property and the seeming large plans that they have in store for it as it’s off to a great start.
Grade: A-
Age Rating: 17+
Released By: Vault Comics
Release Date: August 25th, 2021
MSRP: $3.99
