Son of Merlin Attempts to Make Magical Debut
New from Image imprint Top Cow Productions, Inc., a five-part mini-series titled Son of Merlin debuted its first issue on January 9th. The story has a bit of a Dresden Files experience to it, combining ancient magic with the modern day. The story ultimately focuses on a genius professor at MIT by the name of Simon Ambrose. A disciple of science, Ambrose puts little belief in anything else. It’s not until he encounters an un-openable book and a seemingly crazy but attractive female that his eyes start to see a world he was previously unaware of.
Little does Simon Ambrose realize, but he’s the bastard son of the great wizard Merlin. Yes, as in King Arthur western mythology Merlin. The villian at hand is the legendary Morgana whose main greed-laden intent seems to be to obtain that book that has landed in the hands of the currently magic-ignorant Ambrose. The contents of the ancient text are unknown for now as the story is just starting out from the mind of Robert Place Napton (Warlords of Mars).
The mystery book becomes the subject of a deadly cat and mouse game with Simon Ambrose at the center of it all. He’s going to have help along the way and all indications point toward the MIT prof quite likely realizing some untapped potential in future issues. It may be too early to tell in just the first issue, but I get the impression there is going to be a strong Obi-Wan/Luke parallel in the story to come. If that is the case, I hope the story manages to maintain its own idenity so as not to have readers like me thinking ‘Star Wars’ the whole time we see Ambrose growing and learning how to take down bad guys.
The artwork is provided by Zid. Sorry, just one name. I tried to Google this person and everything but a comic book artist came up. I wish I had something to reference here of the one-name wonder, but that’s all I got. But enough about who they are, let’s talk about what they did. The eye candy looks to be of a water color medium combined with some computer enhancement. It works well with the story and accurately portrays character expression and general motion.
This first issue has a respectable flow to it, though there’s a sequence at MIT that seemed to jump without explanation. Other than that, it’s an entertainingly modest read that’s worthy of a look at the next issue. There’s not a lot of wow factor yet and if I told you my biggest bother of the book, I’d be giving away a big part of what happens. That aside, it’s still deserving of a look.
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