The first thing that popped into my head upon finishing this book was, “What happened to the pacing?” This second issue moves really quickly and doesn’t take the time to relish in what should be epic battles. It was still a good issue and the art was beautiful, but I felt like that was primarily what I was showing up for. If you've ever watched an escort movie, in which a group of soldiers need to get someone more important than themselves to safety then you already know the formula for this book. Someone basically dies every time there is danger or a battle which lessens the ranks of the Sarmatian warriors one by one. Somehow the other warring tribes find out that the Prince is escaping and start hunting for him and his escorts. This pits them into a battle just after they leave the underground passage. The Prince ends up wounded pretty badly, but thankfully his sweat-heart Izza shows up to take care of him. They make it onto a ship and the Sarmatian’s mourn their losses while the Izza nurses the Prince as best she can. We flash back to a scene from before with the Prince and Izza getting it on, which basically confirms to me how this story will end (ask me on Twitter if you want to know). They sail for a bit, before a smaller and lighter ship catches up to them. Two of the Sarmatians dive into the water with cross bows and get along-side the other ship. They pop a couple of dudes in the head and then jump aboard and really cause some damage.
The story is just okay. Frankly I’m not being given enough time to get to know these characters at all. The Prince seems to be the most important, but we’re not given enough of his personality to truly care if he makes it or not. The people you would normally root for, the Sarmatians are even less known to us. Their deaths hit the group hard, but I don’t even know their names until they die. It could be that writer Michael Le Galli didn’t want a character driven story, which is fine, but there is too much emphasis on the amount of characters not to take it into consideration. Hopefully it’s not something being lost in translation (I mean that literally too).
This is still some of Francis Manapul’s (The Flash) best work. He seriously needs to track down Christelle Moulart and ask her to color all of his books. Her colors bring his artwork to life and make it look better than his first run on Flash before the reboot. Really this is an art book since the story is just okay, but the art brings you back for more. If you dug the first issue or just want to see how it ends then pick up this ported adaptation from Boom! Studios.
Score: 3/5
Writer: Michael Le Galli Artist: Francis Manapul Publisher: Boom Studios Price: $3.99