by Wendy Pini (art & plot), Richard Pini (writer), Paul Abrams (art), Richard McKinney (Art)Publisher: Dark Horse Books (September 5th, 2017)
Softcover 492 pages
This
latest volume of Elfquest comics
collects the Hidden Years #10 -15 and
Shards # 1- 16 series, all of which
comprise one of the longest storylines ever for Elquest. At this point in the 90’s the main story broke off into
two different series. Cutter, the protagonist and leader of the Wolfriders,
headed this one, while his daughter Ember created her own tribe of Elves and
became the central figure for the remainder of the Hidden Year’s run. Those
will be put into the next volume.
These
issues initially came out around the time when I quit collecting comics in the
mid 90s. And I was not alone in this. The entire comics market crashed as the
Gen Xers graduated college, had to get real jobs, and start paying their own
way- which meant extra expenses like comics had to be cut. But it was more than
that, comics in general had taken a creative slump. I initially felt that Elfquest was among those whose quality
had slipped. When they put out more title,s they then needed new artists, thus
it could not be the same Elfquest. To
me the art was as essential as the characters, it was the reason I kept reading
it. So I stopped collecting it.
As
such, unlike the previous volumes, this is my first time reading these issues
and I have to say that I misjudged the quality of the work. It must have been a
knee jerk reaction that caused me to reject them (along with a lack of funds),
because this is a fast paced, well executed, story that carries on the best
traditions of the Elfquest series.
The
story here is much more violent than your standard Elfquest title and, while the series is not known from shying away
from violence, this series is a protracted siege of events, with a warband of
wolfriders storming a human citadel during a civil war to reunite the shattered
shards of the Palace of the High Ones. There are more character deaths in this
story than in the last thirty issues combined.
The
world of Two Moons has changed dramatically after the Wolfriders’ 20,000 year
nap. Humans, previously seen as stone age tribes, have pulled themselves up
into the Iron Age and the land is ruled by the Grohmul Djun (great name!), a Ghengis Khan type character, who is first
real overarching human threat to the Elves. He is on par with Winnowil and Two
Edge, defeating the elves with brute force and determination.
The
only real quibble I have with the series is the return of the half-elf/half-troll
Two Edge. Last time we saw him was 20,000 years in the past, on a different
continent, where he had been stabbed in the guts by Clearbrook and then the
remainder of Blue Mountain fell on him. Then he just appears and is working as
the Master Architect for the Elves’ current threat. It’s a little contrived.
Too much of a coincidence. The character’s arc had gone full circle. They
should have left well enough alone, not pushed the rewind button on him- which
is essentially what the writers did.
Also,
it’s perfectly clear the authors know nothing about mining. I don’t really
either, but I know enough that you can't
just tunnel straight through the ground for miles in several days. Even with a
rock shaper, you have to worry about air supplies and hitting pockets of gas.
The Trolls here seem like Superman in their ability to tunnel through the
earth. My suspension of disbelief was stretched to the max in this instance.
As
used as I am to exclusively seeing Wendy Pini’s art in connection to Elfquest, it took me a few minutes to
get used to the two new artists who penciled this series. Paul Abrams, who drew
the first issue in this volume, has a style which is fairly rough compared to
the excellent quality of previous issues. The second, Brandon McKinney, who
penciled the bulk of the Shards storyline was much easier to get into and had a
fluid style comparable to the original artist. Wendy Pini, however, makes a
triumphant return at the end of the book and, holy shit, you sure can tell the
difference. So, except for the first issue, the quality of the series is above
average, which is still a step down from their normal excellent quality.
For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst.
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