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The Sword
Vol. 1: Fire (TPB)
Book Released: 02 Jul 2008
Posted 05 Sept 2008
Writer: Joshua Luna
Artist: Jonathan Luna
Letters: Jonathan Luna
Publisher: Image
4.00 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed by J. W. DeBolt Jr.
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Note: Major spoilers, increasing with each
paragraph! If it starts to sound good, stop reading and go buy the
first trade paperback!
The Luna Brothers are master storytellers. The way each issue in a
story unfolds and the shock at the end of most issues could almost be
their trademark. Almost everything I like about their previous series
Girls, I also like about The Sword.
Most apparent is the crisp, clean art. It isn’t complicated,
it isn’t pretentious, and it serves the story well. In the
unexplainable category: It’s just nice to look at.
“I don’t know what to expect from the
Lunas — and that’s half — if not most — of the
fun.”
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The mystery here develops in a less ambitious manner than in
Girls. The Brighton family is slaughtered by a group of
villains with elemental powers seeking a fabled sword — which
the family claimed they knew nothing about, particularly the father.
One of the daughters, Dara, a paraplegic left for dead, survives and
finds the sword. The sword’s powers include healing the holder
and she finds she can walk again. She discovers that her father may
have been a guardian of the sword, but never told her. Despite not
knowing why her father never healed her when he had the chance, she
knows only that her father, if he indeed knew about the sword,
sacrificed his family to protect it. She could not let it fall into
the hands of the elemental bunch.
Dara goes on the run with her friend Julie and one of her
father’s former students, Justin, who showed up at the family
funeral. Justin explained how the father told stories of Demetrios and
a powerful, mystical sword. Realizing the stories Justin heard are now
probably true, Dara keeps him with her so she can learn more about the
sword, the situation and the secret history of her father.
Unfortunately, the elementals send a goon squad to retrieve the
sword and Dara ends up killing them all just as the police show up.
With the sword’s help she flees and helps her comrades hide.
They soon find out they don’t like life on the run and, being
realistic despite the sword’s super-realism, Dara decides to
turn herself in and get the authorities to figure the whole thing out.
She helps her comrades get away again when she is apprehended.
At first relieved to get the chance to straighten things out, Dara
realizes she has been captured by a secret organization bent on
appropriating the sword’s powers for itself. Possession of the
sword even for a moment amplifies one of the agent’s darker
impulses and he kills his colleagues and almost kills Dara, but she
manages to get away.
The mystery remains about the sword’s origin, who Demetrios
really was, and what the elemental trio plan to do when they get the
sword (besides, probably, double-crossing each other). And we wonder
what Dara is going to do with the sword, how she can get back to a
normal life (if, indeed, that is what she will want), or whether she
will take over for Demetrios as the sword’s new guardian. And we
want to know what the purpose of the sword.
I look forward to getting these questions answered in the upcoming
issues. Another great effort by the Luna Brothers. An added bonus for
me is that the story takes place in Northern Virginia and there are
local references (such as a newscaster who looks suspiciously like Jim
Vance, for you locals). The story looks mildly predictable from here
on, but after Girls, I don’t know what to expect from the
Lunas — and that’s half — if not most — of the
fun.
—CCdC—
Cover image used without explicit permission in accordance with the "Fair Use" provision of US copyright law.
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