Zenescope continues their trend of taking well known tales and giving them a modern spin in its new series, The Musketeers, being released February 21, 2018. This story, which is slated to be a five issue series, is full of excitement and adventure, breathing new life into an age old story.
The story, written by Terry Kavanagh, follows the three musketeers, Winter Sudam, known for her unmatched stealth, athletic agility and speed, Diego Garcia, known for his powerful strength, and Carmen Alexander, “swordswoman extraordinaire”, who were recently empowered with such abilities by the Book of Fables. We begin our story with the Musketeers in the mythical city of Camelot, home to Arthur Pendragon, the sorcerer Merlin and his apprentice, Morgan Fey. The musketeers, though simply modern humans from our world, have been receiving training and education from the great Merlin, but are now ready to return to their own world, as it is currently in danger from another supernatural, magical force. As I have mentioned in previous reviews, I absolutely love the idea of taking tales that have been favorites for ages and making them fresh and new again and the Three Musketeers is no exception. Kavanagh has given us some interesting characters who, in issue one, haven’t been completely developed enough to fully determine whether they are heroes or villains. I enjoy the complexity of such characters, as things in the real world are rarely black and white, and thus we see that outlined within the story. Issue one was an enjoyable read, though not perfect. The pacing of the issue was a little bit off and I found some of the timeline and location jumping to be a bit confusing and not explained well enough. I think that there has been a little trouble with multiple Zenescope titles trying to fit in too much action in the first issue, that instead of it being a cohesive tale that leaves us speculating about a vast number of things, they try and hook readers with nonstop action and adventure and details tend to lose out a bit. This story definitely has potential, I am hoping they will slow the pacing down just a bit in the next issue and give us a chance to get to know the characters and see more of an unfolding definitive plot, as opposed to just offering explosive action sequences.
The art done by Daniel Maine definitely makes this series all the more exciting. The action sequences are drawn with such motion, it’s very exhilarating. I love fantasy, so watching castles, dragons and characters of old come to life on each and every page truly is fantastic and I think will appeal to any fantasy lover out there. The colors, done by Bryan Valenza also add to the fantasy aspect of the story. The colors are vivid and bold and cause the well-drawn action packed story to further jump off the page. The artists of this piece certainly work well together to create a memorable story.
All in all I found The Musketeers to be a really enjoyable read, save for the timing and pacing issues. I think if the writer slows the following issues down a bit and really hones in on letting readers get to know the characters more, this will be a very successful short series. I am looking forward to reading the next issue when it comes out.
-Rachel Rutherford