Broken Frontier

Zorro: Year One? Ultimate Zorro? All-Star Zorro? Any way you look at it, it’s still a fun book!

Dynamite Entertainment is seemingly swimming in licenses of late, and Zorro is another quality title. This issue tells the tale of the boy who would become Zorro with intermittent bursts to the "present" and the first "Mark of Zorro" (it’s not called such, however, I think we can safely assume the "Z" stands for Zorro).

Zorro was never a character that I had any kind of particular interest in, so when I saw this book fall into my review pile I was a bit nervous. How could I compare this telling of Zorro’s origin to others told before? Then I realized that I didn’t have to, and this issue weaves quite an entertaining and satisfying tale.

Though a bit muddy in some places, the art from Francesco Francavilla was quite fitting for this type of story. There is no inker listed in the credits, and my eye cannot tell whether or not the muddiness is the fault of the penciller inking his own work, or the colorist laying the plates down just a touch too heavy.

The "Next Issue" sneak peek on the back cover fills me with a bit of trepidation, as I fear we’re stepping into an elongated decompressed written "for the trade" type of a story. This would be my only storytelling complaint. It felt as though I was re-reading Ultimate Spider-Man #1 and hearing rumors that he wouldn’t don the suit for several months.

This book has a lot going for it. Obviously strong talent and a publisher who’s on a roll at the moment, I just hope they turn up the action a little bit sooner than later.