Soulfire #1 – Review

By: J.T. Krul (writer), Jason Fabok (penciller), John Starr (colorist)

The Story: With all that magic, you’d think you’d be able to whip up a meal that isn’t vodka.

The Review: Considering Aspen MLT was cofounded by the late Michael Turner, one of the more distinctive artists in the comics biz, it’s no wonder their titles tend to look far more impressive than they read.  Not to say their comics are completely insubstantial, story-wise; it just seems like they tend to base their series in the most formulaic of plots, using them as a vehicle for splashy artwork than for serious storytelling.

You can’t find any better evidence of this trend than Soulfire having Krul handle writing duties.  He can always be depended upon to deliver the plot in logical, well-paced fashion, but he lacks either the chops or inspiration to do so in any way that isn’t predictable.  He also offers dialogue equally as needlessly fraught and melodramatic as he does on anything else he writes: “Grace, must you always interfere?  It will be the death of you—sooner than you might expect.”

Certainly he’s not helped by the fact that issue serves primarily as a summation of events from the previous Soulfire titles, a somewhat redundant effort, since the issue comes with a fairly effective recap page.  Even though I have no familiarity whatsoever with the series, I still find it more annoying than useful that every character spends time recalling the past: the conflict between the Rahtumi and Sethoru races over their dwindling magic; Malikai returning magic to the world as the Bringer of Light; and the infant alliance between the two races.

Subsequently, we get little meat to the current plot, which consists of two threads that already reek of familiarity.  You get Grace hunting down the renegade Sethoru Onyx, who’s gotten her hands on—what else?—a forbidden grimoire, which Onyx wants to use its dark secrets for the glory of the Sethoru.  Grace very much wants to stop her, but we know it will be, as these things invariably turn out, too late.

You also have Malikai himself, alone and wandering the world in his self-imposed exile, a choice  he made out of angst and insecurity over his powers.  A few vague panels of his magic usage hardly convinces us that he really posed any danger to himself or his girlfriend, so when he mourns, “How long until I can see Sonia again?” you’re inclined to think, Well, whenever you want, really.  In the meantime, his sojourn in the real, decidedly less magical world leads him to meet, of course, a friendly, sympathetic, dishy gal, proving being an outcast can’t be all that bad.

Fabok offers work that looks uncannily like David Finch’s style: the slight, angular lines that make the characters’ faces, the spotty and hatched shading, the almost doughy look of the flesh.  This is in no way a critique of Fabok’s art, however.  Like Finch, he makes for a dazzling and kinetic issue, aided by a much better sense of paneling.  He smartly twists perspectives from panel to panel, using close-ups and spreads as needed to keep the action and drama from feeling too stationary in any one scene.

Conclusion: As a prelude, “catch-up” kind of issue, it works fine, but it’s hard to tell if there’s really an interesting story lurking around here.

Grade: C+

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: – I love that in Siberia, their diner is basically a bar.