Soulfire #2 – Review

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

The Story: Aw, shucks, Onyx—can’t we all just try to get along?

The Review: Probably Krul’s most self-defeating weakness is his inability to deliver a story that reaches beyond the expected or cliché.  While the source material for Soulfire seems like it never had much in the way of original thought to begin with, Krul had the opportunity to break that trend in this third volume of the series, and he has squandered it disappointingly.  So far, the title reads like a steady jumble of classic fantasy tropes, a prime example of formulaic writing.

I confess I’ve never read the other volumes of Soulfire, but I can only imagine the war between Sethoru and Rahtumi made the bulk of its previous plots.  So it’s rather frustrating to see Krul opening that can of worms again, especially since the two races only just started their integration.  Had we seen signs of discontent between them, maybe a revisit to their old antagonism would work, but by all appearances, the transition has gone smoothly, to the relief of all.

All of which makes the Sethoru’s decision to follow Onyx at the end an inexplicably unwise choice, especially since Onyx is a deranged, babbling, egomaniacal racist.  With her newfound powers she strikes not only the Rahtumi she hates, but her own people as well, essentially coercing them to depart from the beautiful, peaceful kingdom they’ve only begun to appreciate in favor of a life full of big, snarling, winged leeches.

While Onyx is clearly a one-note villain designed to be disliked (but only in a distant sort of way, as frankly, you don’t really give a hoot what she gets up to), the rest of the title’s cast don’t venture much beyond their types.  Even Grace, one of the most important leads, shows so little personality other than “determined warrior princess” that she’s not much more than a glorified extra in terms of character depth.

Meanwhile,  sassy, hard-hitting Paula and soft-spoken Malikai are on course to fulfilling the ol’ “street-smart girl shows naïve lad the ropes” storyline.  Of course, she looks out for him only as a big sister might (until some inevitable, reckless act of chivalry on his part forces her to consider some serious makeout time), and he still pines for his former boo (for now—sooner or later he’ll wake up to the super-hot, non-hysterical gal he’s living with).  But we all know their romance will one day make him the hero he’s destined to be.  You can’t expect more from Krul.

Fabok’s artistic similarities to David Finch come out in full force this issue, in both the good and the bad.  The good is his characters, especially the women, never look anything less than spectacular, especially with Starr’s dazzling colors.  The bad is his excessive posing often flies in the face of logic: Faye sitting pretty on her throne while everyone else around her struggles for survival; Valdar gripping his head, even though the winged leeches latch solely onto his torso; Arlin bearing his sword before him, yet still getting instantly decapitated in one stroke.

Conclusion: Life’s too short to spend on a series that can’t offer even one significantly interesting character or plotline in two issues.  Dropped until further notice.

Grade: C-

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: – Krul has never been a terrific dialoguist (not a word, but it should be if we accept “badonkadonk” as a word), but I will never understand his love of pointing out the obvious: “Onyx, have you gone mad?!”  I have to assume killing everyone with demonically summoned flying, fanged leeches is a perfectly rational behavior in Arlin’s book.