Writer: Robert Place Napton
Artist: Zid
Letterer: Troy Peteri
Editor: Bryan Rountree and Matt Hawkins
Publisher: Image Comics
On Sale: June 5, 2013
Price: $2.99
Format: FC
Rated: T+/Teen Plus
CONCLUSION!
Dr. Simon Ambrose, MIT professor and heir to Merlin’s magic legacy, has fled from the vengeful Morgana long enough. Now it is time to stand his ground and fight. But will inherited talent and his cursory understanding of Merlin’s diaries be enough to conquer a mage of Morgana’s level and might?
What to say when a mini-series you are enjoying hits it’s final issue?
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this series, it had a fresh take on the Merlin tales. One that I do wish had been longer than 5 issues. Thus far my wish made after reading issue 4 has not come true. Merlin has not mysteriously appeared to cast a spell extending the life of this series beyond these five issues.
Napton kept the pace of the tale moving along at just the right speed. Fast enough to keep the reader interested but slow enough to absorb what was occurring. He managed to develop the characters sufficiently to have the reader care what would happen while not bogging the story down with needless details in a mini-series. And once again he manages to present solutions for the situation(s) that the characters find themselves in without becoming implausible, at least not implausible for those with druidic abilities.
Zid’s art in this issue continued to impress me and unlike the preceding issue there were no pages that struck me as being muddy. From the moment you first see the characters dealing with the consequences of the final pages of issue four (oh don’t worry no spoilers here) until the final scene on the final page his art conveys Napton’s story wonderfully.
Here is my wish that we see these characters again in another tale from this same creative team. So Merlin if you are sleeping out there maybe you will here this in your sleep and wake long enough to cast a spell upon them so that they will tell us another tale, or perhaps the next phase of this one.
Final Score: 9/10
Check out the preview pages available at Top Cow.
