Synopsis: The Fire and Ice prequel comic continues. To save Darah and Teegra, Darkwolf faces off against the witch Roliel’s son, Otwa, in a deadly duel to the death. At Icepeak, Juliana discovers her beloved son Kaledan has been murdered, and Nekron blames it on assassins from the Fire Realm.
The Story
In the fight between Darkwolf and Otwa, the latter is defeated. However, Darkwolf spares his life and heads off. Meanwhile, a conclave of the fire tribes is held to decide a course of action against Juliana and the Ice Tribe. Elsewhere Juliana confirms Nekron as her new Heir given that Kaledan is now gone. Having found Otwa’s broken body on retrieved it. Roliel works her magic to renew her son’s strength but is interrupted part way by Juliana.
The Artwork
Leonardo Manco continues to do some fantastic artwork in this book. The art style is very much in keeping with the animated movie, which is great news given that it keeps you invested in the story. I loved the panels in which Darkwolf fights Otwa. This sequence is drawn so well that I can imagine being played out in animated form. Another great sequence is where we see Darkwolf use his magic to heal his horse, which Otwa threw at him in an earlier sequence.
Overall
Bill Willingham continues to weave an interesting prequel story to the original Fire & Ice movie from Frank Frazetta and Ralph Bakshi’s original movie. Every one of the key characters from the movie gets developed and the story of the two warring tribes is full of intrigue. I particularly enjoyed Juliana’s conversation with Nekron where she reminds him about his responsibilities and plots her revenge against the Fire Realm and their assassin. It would appear that this issue is just a precursor for much bigger things, which we’ll see get played out in the third issue.
- Covers9.0
- Story9.3
- Artwork10
- Lettering9.4
- Colours10
