Summoners War Legacy #4

Summoners War Legacy #4

Skybound/Image Comics 2021

Written by Justin Jordan

Illustrated by Luca Claretti

Coloured by Giovanna Niro

Lettered by Deron Bennett

Under assault by a rogue summoner, Rai and Tomas’s only hope lies with…a fuzzy, little genius—Tatakana the Banyan!

I am still extremely impressed with this series. Visually this has all the charm and charisma of Cardcaptor Sakura and from a story perspective it’s hard hitting and pretty darn powerful. I love that these two kids who are just starting out in the respective careers and are under the same mentor now they’ve got to na igate this world and their abilities on their own with no one to trust but each other oh and Tatakana too because that little one turned on her paid gig and went to help the kids.

This story has so much promise and potential to what is still to come that it is so incredibly easy to get wrapped up in these events. With Mr. Voss being such a cold hearted snake, he’s exactly the type of person that after killing a man would pressure two kids into doing things his way, be it the easy or the hard way and I have to say I doubt he’d have any remorse in killing everyone here.

I am very much enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter continue to flesh these characters out in ways that make them more accessible to the reader. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story the more we see these kids growing up fast before our eyes.

I appreciate the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. We all know the layers contain the characterisation, the plot twists and so much more and whether they impact the main arc or swirl around it they all add this great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is beautifully achieved.

I really like the interiors here. The linework is phenomenal and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail work we see throughout the issue is gorgeously rendered. The faces and facial expressions along with the body language really helps to further the characterisation and bring such wonderful emotion and feeling to the page. I do wish we’d see more backgrounds being utilised more often because what we do see within the composition of the panels brings out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is beautifully rendered. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work really shows a stellar eye for how colour works and how to maximise the effects.

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With each issue that comes out we see just the right amount of storytelling elevation that is so subtle. It isn’t too subtle that we don’t notice it but it’s subtle enough that it is almost taken for granted and it is so well done that Justin really manages to impress me with how he’s able to do this. With some creative writing and powerful characterisation with these beautiful interiors that make this world come to life exceptionally well.