Broken Frontier

Turner’s epic takes readers deeper into a future filled with dragons and technology, but the script continues to lag behind this book’s breathtaking art and vision.

Turner has a gift in the way he is able to imagine fantastic worlds and epic tales. Now the Fathom creator’s Soulfire is getting up to speed, though it’s time for Turner’s latest to live up to its pristine imagery.

The setting is San Francisco in a distant future where virtual reality and flying cars are commonplace. A dragon, thought to be a creature of myth, now threatens the land. Somehow this is connected to the fate of a young boy, Malikai, who seems to have some special quality that makes the bad guys very interested in killing him. An early attempt on his life has already been thwarted by Grace, a beautiful woman with unusual blue dragonfly-ish wings. Joined by Malikai’s well-meaning but oblivious friends, Grace now attempts to get the boy out of the city before the forces of darkness can find him and do their worst.

Soulfire has a Lord of the Rings sort of style. We have a small person entrusted with the salvation of a world threatened by great evil that must be protected by an unlikely band of travelers, etc. This issue introduces us to Benoist, an engineer/gladiator with a wicked awesome suit of armor and a really nice goatee, who shows up late in the issue but seems poised to share Aragorn/Gandalf duties with Grace in the books to come. Much like Fellowship, however, it’s taking an awful long time to get introduced to the world, meet everyone, learn about the great evil, and finally pack up and leave for the big Adventure. We are three issues into the story and it’s only just getting to the point of being really exciting.

The problem, in part, may rest with just too many cooks. Turner and recent Batman/Superman collaborator Jeph Loeb share "storyteller" credits, in addition to J.T. Krul’s script credit. Turner’s contributions stop at the story level, but Loeb’s writing tends towards a breakneck, plot-driven style that leaves heavy character development in the passenger seat. This is fine when dealing with established characters like Batman and Superman, but when we have brand-new faces, they need a few nice character moments mixed up with all the exotic images and heavy plot. The dialogue lacks any kind of real flavor, or if it has flavor, it smacks of the faux-hip speak Loeb is found of using to "youngify" his characters. Let’s not forget the gratuitous use of "Dude" in issue #1.

This is a little disappointing because the art is phenomenal, as usual. Of course Turner draws some of the most beautiful women in comics, and his flair for design, especially in the organic/technological vein, reaches some nice peaks in this work. The ultra-clean angular style of his figures might not be to everyone’s liking, and Turner certainly can’t seem to either draw a human being in less than perfect physical condition or to clothe his female characters in something that covers the midriff. However, that’s not really the point. This is Turner’s work for Turner fans, and on the count, it delivers spectacularly.

Soulfire has the potential to be an amazing new fantasy story. It’s refreshing to see someone take the elements of the sword and sorcery epics and do something with them that doesn’t involve elves and wizards. Fusing the sci-fi into Soulfire is a genius that hasn’t been used so effectively since Battle Chasers. There are just too many cool visuals. The sinister Mr. Abel, for example, has an enormous hump on his back. You have to check this book out just to see how cool it is when we see just what he’s concealing underneath those robes. Plus, it’s worth repeating: Benoist has a wicked awesome suit of armor.

This issue is also so far the best of the three. Nevertheless, while the premise is so promising and the artwork shows us a breathtaking world, the writing is still a little lacking. What Soulfire really needs is a little charming mysticality and expert wordsmithing from the likes of Neil Gaiman. For the art fans, this is a must buy, but if cash is short you might want to wait on it. Hopefully, the Soulfire crew is just a little shaky warming up and getting ready to knock our socks off very, very soon.

-Jesse Vigil