Warlands: Dark Tides Rising #1
Jumping straight into the next Warlands series. This one has 6 issues and is the last story set in the world before Dreamwave went out of business. I have never read this one. So looking forward to finally finishing off the world. Mateo Guerrero, the artist that took over for Pat Lee half way through Age of Ice, is the full time artist for the entire series this time. Adrian Tsang, the previous writer for all things Warlands has been replaced by Brian Augustyn.
Pretty sure Dreamwave goes under shortly after the end of this series so I'm half expecting things to be rushed and not too great at some point. However, the presentation on this first issue is pretty awesome. It has a 3 page wrap around cover. And I didn't count but it feels like the page count was a bit higher as well. This issue introduces the new cast for the most part.
We start with a song. It tells of how Warlands became so full of conflict. Luzien, the son of light, drove the darkness deep into the land. We also get our first two characters, a dwarf named Baggot and an elf named Laina. Laina is searching for her purpose that came to her in a dream.
They save the minstrels from reapers. Reapers seem to be some kind of dark cultists. But the minstrels disappear soon after in a mysterious way.
There is some kind of reference to an island of Kardis. Where two cultures wiped each other out. This seems to be a potential destination for the quest but not much else is said.
We then jump to another couple. Balen and Kyra. They are pillaging some treasure from a battle site. Balen is an arms dealer that has dreams of how things will work out. He purposely pits armies against each other for profits. Not real sure if he is going to be an enemy or part of the group.
Next up is a priest and his apprentice. They are fighting mutated vampires. Zadok Shaw and Pelonis are also heading toward a quest. One that came to Zadok in his dreams. Lots of dreamers so far!
After they head out we get a glimpse of someone we already know! Zeph. Not so much a child anymore but also not the Archmage he will become in the Age of Ice. The way the story reads he knows of the upcoming quest but may choose to sit this one out.
And with our introductions complete we get a glimpse of the darkness biding its time and preparing for the quest as well!
This was a big set up issue obviously. Lots of character introductions. We don't get a lot of cross over story from previous volumes. Which is kind of a shame to me. Lots of great characters that never got their time to shine that could have been elaborated upon in further stories but instead we're getting an entirely new cast of characters. It's okay though, at least we got a reference to Zeph. Other than Shidima, every series references Zeph in some capacity so he is the one constant.
In this case, he is still quite young but it is obviously after the race wars from volume one. We also see mutated vampires fighting Zadok and Pelonis. This kind of indicates that this takes place somewhere between the Banished Knights series and Age of Ice.
Mateo's art grows on me a bit. It is not the style the original Warlands and start of Age of Ice created. It is much more cartoon-like. It is still cool though. I do think he knows how to tell a story, which is really important. The panels flow well.
The story so far has potential. It feels like it is setting up for a grand quest, though with only 5 more issues to go I'm worried it'll feel crammed and rushed. A lot of characters to flesh out in only 5 issues, and that is to say nothing of the quest itself or the world.
Enough speculating though. We will soon find out!
To Be Continued!