Broken Frontier

Fearing for the lives of the young, Mornae pulls Lieto out of his daze to tell a story of the Templar hero Kuhl-En. The road that they travel is revealed to end at the capital city of Dealrach Ard-Vale. A place populated by rats, weasels, free mice and ruled by a corrupt king.

Meanwhile, Karic and Pilot must fight for their lives as they try to convince the Priesthood at the Ash Tree that their cause is just and their story true. Will Cassius split the pair and will a truth revealed to our young hero destroy his faith in the Templar?

Oeming and Glass have lightning in a bottle. This epic fantasy is really only equaled by the work of Tolkien. When you take the time to read the afterwords by Tim Daniel, "Myth, Legend & The Mice Templar", you begin to understand the amount of work that went into the world creation here.

There is more at play here than acknowledging Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, or even Redwall. There is a scholarly presence behind these stories that lifts the whole experience beyond the normal comic book. Glass and Oeming are intentionally tapping into Jungian archetypes. Creating a new mythology out of the primordial stew brewing in the collective unconscious. That is why those of us that have chosen to take this journey with them are so pulled into this world and it is why those other stories do the same. They work on a base level that the normal reader is not completely aware of and on a level that a well read scholar can appreciate. It makes for an impressive and deep read.

There’s more than just the acknowledgment of myths before them. When the mice enter the capital city in this issue, you get a sense of the epic scope of the planning that the writers have put here. When you couple that with a very allegorical story within the story as Lieto tries to calm the younger mice, you realize that these are masters at work, subtly playing with all the angles available to them. Distracting you, the audience, with a trick of the hand, you learn more about the world and its past. Both through the story and its correlation to the larger piece at hand, but also in the attitudes of the adults when the tale is done. This is a society that is fractured on every level and we see that at play with the new slaves, within the city itself and also in the priesthood. There is something just below the surface that is beginning the boiling and the top is set to explode.

The book is a labor of love and the art displays that better then anything. From the water colored covers to the dark and expressive interiors. Oeming is pouring his soul into this book with co-story credit not being enough, the new technique that he uses in the book just looks better with each successive issue. His storytelling prowess is no better illustrated then during the story of Kuhl-En as the brightness that surrounds the founder of the Templar contrasts significantly with the dark and gritty look of the present day story. It is meant to show us that this dark time is a recent development, that it was not always that way and that maybe the actions of Karic will lead the mice back to a brighter time again. It is more than just ably illustrating the scripted words and action, it actually embellishes the piece and lends another layer to be understood by the concerting reader.

Mice Templar is something special. For those of you who have missed out, this is the penultimate chapter of the first arc, that means a trade should be coming shortly and you will be able to join in the experience that makes this fantasy the best on the market.