Dark Souls: Legends of the Flame #1 –
Titan Comics
Written by Tom Williams
George Mann
Tauriq Moosa
Dan Watters
Art by Alan Quah
Komikaki Studio
Piort Kowalski
Brad Simpson
Damien Worm
Nick Percival
Letters by Rob Steen
Tom Williams
It’s a great time to be a gamer. Video games have become so cinematic, with in depth story telling to go along with the game play elements. That doesn’t mean that there are not other stories to tell and more worlds to explore. Titan Comics jumps into the world of video game comics once again this week with Dark Souls: Legends of the Flame. This limited series is a little bit different.
The reason there is such a large creative team is, there are several different stories within this one issue. A traveler arrives to a place where an old woman tells him tales through a giant flame. Each story deals with the curse that has plagued the world and how it affects different people and areas. Even though this is a regular sized comic, none of these stories felt rushed or left anything lacking. Surprisingly enough, they actually all seemed to tie in at the end, in their own way. Each tale seemed to have a different warning, and a different lesson that needed to be learned. Some moments were violent, some were heartbreaking and some left you wondering how they didn’t see it coming. The end of the story comes back to where it started, and uses the tales as a means to round things out and really kick off the remaining issues.
When I first saw how this book was structured (and how many pages there were), I will admit that I was worried. Given the names attached, I probably shouldn’t have been worried, but I just didn’t see how this whole issue wouldn’t seem rushed as it was structured. The way that each story played to a similar theme, and how they really tie together nicely at the end, is a credit to everyone involved in this project. Then you look at all the different art teams, and they too, did not miss a single step. Even though each style is different, this is one of the most striking artwork of any comic on the shelf right now. Each also sets the mood so well with the writer that they were paired up with. Titan has done a lot of video game comics, and have a pretty good track record of delivering consistent winners. This one may be one of their best yet, and right up there with Deus Ex: Children’s Crusade. Whether you are a fan of the Dark Souls games or not, you will enjoy this book.
RATING: PULL / BUY