Broken Frontier

Elric: The Balance Lost marks the beginning of a brand-new miniseries within Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion story-verse.  The most exciting aspect of Elric: The Balance Lost is the shared inclusion and importance of both fantasy and science fiction themes.  Author Chris Roberson effortlessly weaves between not just different fantasy worlds, but universes within a greater multiverse. For those unfamiliar to Moorcock’s world-famous series, this fantastic first issue requires no previous knowledge and perfectly sets the stage for the series to come.

Roberson must be commended for taking three of Moorcock’s most established and famous characters and boiling them down to their essence to make them new-reader friendly.  In fact, only Eric Beck, the story’s lead, is a new creation from Roberson, who effortlessly juggles the characters by giving each an individual look and voice.  Not only are the characters memorable, but many scenes end while also cleverly connecting to the next, which greatly helps the pacing and flow of the story.  Eric, for example, comes across a poster of a black galleon at sea, which when the page is turned is the exact ship carrying the famous Corum, the solitary Prince of the Scarlet Robe.

Building upon the various settings Roberson writes is the fantastic art by Francesco Biagani.  While the bulk of this first issue is exposition-heavy and explores the histories of each character, Biagani’s settings keep the energy flowing as he creates unique and individual worlds that each character calls home.  Elric, who travels on the Moonbeam Roads between the worlds of the multiverse, is especially memorable as he battles hideous and grotesque monsters across a chaos-stricken world.

The first issue of Elric: The Balance Lost is not only a great introduction to the series, but the wider story-verse of Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion.  Both Roberson and Biagani work well to introduce layered characters, fantasy and science fiction themes, and whole worlds without ever becoming overwhelming.  With battles raging, characters traveling between different universes, and eons of history to be revealed, Elric: The Balance Lost is certainly a new miniseries ready to by explored.