By Dustin Cabeal

When it comes to fantasy worlds, everyone is living in the shadows of Tolkien and other literary greats that managed to create deep back stories and rich worlds to tell their stories. It is incredibly hard to catch the attention of readers and fans with new worlds and characters. Often, as it is with Vesper, the author is acutely aware of the rich back story that they have created. Instead of unraveling it over the course of the story they instead blurt it out like an excited child who cannot wait to share their creation. The constant mention of the past and exposition dumps provided by each character as they are introduced becomes the biggest hindrance to the story.

You need not look any further than the first page to get a lovely “here’s what you missed” type introduction. The attempt is to give the reader insight into the world, but none of it feels important to what is presented on the pages after and frankly was forgettable. For all it’s worth, the page could have been blank, it’s that useless. As for exposition dumps, our main character meets with her mother later in the story and it comes across like a daytime talk show summing up all their drama for the audience to quickly soak up. “I know you can read my mind” said no one to a person they know can read minds. At one-point dear mum states how difficult Vesper was to raise and that she had to send her off to be raised by someone else. It is clearly being used to establish this character at a later time in the story, but in its current form it’s clumsy. They speak in unrealistic ways either by saying things the other character would know or assuming the audience knows something they couldn’t possibly know at this point in the story.

“Well, you know Vesper, she was a wild child and ended up running away from home! It is okay though, Mepaw Thunderfists took her in and taught her how to tame the beast inside. Now I will vaguely explain what the beast insider her is even though we all know and have zero reason to repeat this out loud.”

As for the plot, it can sadly be boiled down to a simple revenge story. Vesper’s motivation is having her tongue cut off and the man she loves imprisoned. Fair enough I suppose, but her dedication level is scorched earth. Even the author knew they needed more and by the end the story gives the reader a peek at what Vesper will discover and propel her to seek further revenge. It is no better or worse than most revenge plot lines, but the strange “give her more motivation” could have been her only motivation.

How do we get to the point of tongues cut out (just the tip by the way) and lover’s being pulled away to face trial at a kangaroo court? It all starts with a holy war or something resembling the fantasy crusades. Vesper and the men she is fighting next to are making a final push to capture a city. If this city falls then the war is over or something to that nature again the story assumes you know this information. There was never really a sense of how long the war had been going on and the final battle was incredibly easy for Vesper to finish on her own. She uses witchcraft and destroys everything, but the rest of the soldiers look at her and go, “You shouldn’t use witchcraft Vesper, you know the church we’re fighting for will be mad!” Well, that rascal Vesper does it anyway and kills a bunch of dwarf-looking people in the process. Hooray, the church of definitely not evil people has won the war and claimed this very inhabited city for their own.

At this point the story has phoned in a battle which means we need to let the characters take the night off and let their hair down. At the same time, the not so evil church exposes itself as being evil. What a twist to an otherwise ordinary beginning! The Inquisitor and evil Cardinal… Bishop? You know what he is not technically either of those, but he looks like one of the two. Anyway, they decide they want to get rid of the Bastard Prince that Vesper is banging in the only clean bathtub. They need evidence though, a thousand witnesses to Vesper using witchcraft won’t cut it even if they are completely loyal to the evil church. They send a creepy three-eyed dude to peep on them and this guy does not even care that they’re getting it on in the only clean bathtub with hot water, instead he is more interested in the demon shit that is inhabiting Vesper’s body. A Chimera actually, but even though it is said a million times it is never explained what it is, why it is bad or what it can do. Are we supposed to look up the word and go by the definition we find on the web? If so, check a box for making this story interactive!

This all leads to the Inquisitor and the army that the Bastard Prince and Vesper just fought alongside, arresting them first thing in the morning. These events lead to the kangaroo court and Vesper being rescued by her mother before pig men can rape her. Yeah, what is a revenge story without a pointless addition of rape to the story? They do not succeed, and I am sure the author would say that this moment was here to show her strength and independence… which is total crap. It was not needed, and it could have easily been a brawl and nothing more.

Vesper ends in such a way that it thinks you will want to come back and continue Vesper’s journey of revenge. In truth, there’s very little reason to come back. Vesper as a character is fairly one-dimensional. She does magic, she was a wild child, she is in love with a pure hearted prince. The constant lines alluding to a richer and deeper past fail to create a world that is interesting. Rich backstories succeed once interesting characters are developed and unfortunately, you are left with a bit of whiplash with this story constantly swinging back and forth between the present and the dull exposition about the past.

The art is the one saving grace, but all the painted detail in the book can’t save the choppy pacing of the story. Battle scenes are finished in a mere few pages, but dinner conversations take several pages to complete. The beast men are awkward and out of place with the rest of fantasy world until the latter half of the story when don’t have as many humans in the story. Overall, the artwork is nice, pleasant to look at and well crafted. From a storytelling standpoint there are too many wide illustrations that are full of detail but feel zoomed out on the page in order to make it fit a standard comic formatting. There is a great deal of love when it comes to the characters, but detailed facial expressions and ripped bodies do not take the place of developed characters. Vesper can look as cool as possible, but she’s still a boring character.

Vesper is an easy read. A familiar read at times and while there is plenty to say about it, ultimately, it’s not a bad comic. It is not an inspiring comic and very forgettable, but you will not be tearing out your eyes or wondering if it is worth finishing. The point being, you could read a lot worse, but with Vesper you can tell that the creator is putting in a lot of passion and excitement. They just need more guidance and support on the story. You’ll know within a few short pages if Vesper is a story for you or if you should move on to something else.

Last note:

Upon finishing this review I discovered that Vesper may be based on a game or have a game based on the comic. Frankly, I didn’t care enough to figure out which was which. I’m sure that someone will correct me, but even with that information it doesn’t change my thoughts or experience while reading the comic. If the game came first, it does explain why the author believes everyone knows the backstory, but I would also take metaphorical points away from the story for writing based on the assumption that the audience knows already. Every comic has the potential to be someone’s first experience with not only comics, but the story in general.