Dragon Age: Dark Fortress #1

Dragon Age: Dark Fortress #1

Dark Horse Comics 2021

Written by Nunzio DeFilippis & Christina Weir

Illustrated by Fernando Heinz Furukawa

Ink Assists by Sebastian Heinz

Special Thanks to Rocio Zucchi

Coloured by Michael Atiyeh

Lettered by Nate Piekos of Blambot

The next chapter in the world of BioWare's award-winning dark fantasy RPG begins here! Deep within enemy territory, the warrior-legend Fenris and a fearless team of Inquisition agents prepare to assault a fortress said to be unbreakable in a bid to prevent the unthinkable from being unleashed. The continuation of Dragon Age: Blue Wraith!

This is another series that I found and rather enjoyed without knowing it was based on an RPG video game. If you aren’t a gamer than it’s okay because you don’t have to be to enjoy the storytelling here. If you only play RPGs on the tabletop then you’ll find yourself wanting to run a campaign in this world. So what it boils down to is that this is for everyone regardless, so if you like great solid storytelling then you should do yourself a favour and pick this up. I tell ya this is what a team book is all about, a mix of personalities and powers working together against the odds to succeed where others have failed.

I am a fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented so that everything works to move the story forward beautifully. I know that this is a sequel but honestly it is so new reader friendly and I like that about this. The character development is great and as we see the dialogue alongside how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter we get a better and better sense of who they are. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story and its twists & turns we’re swept up in the beginning of the adventure.

I am enjoying how this is being structured and how the layers within the story are able to weave in, out and about through the main arc. The extra dimension it brings us is extremely well rendered and utilised. The way that we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow is completely and utterly delightful.

The interiors here are stunning! The linework is clean, crisp and how we see the varying weights and techniques utilised to create this level of detail work is mind numbing work. Seriously the quality of the interiors here is astounding and it is some of the most gorgeous work we are seeing on stands today. That backgrounds get the same level of treatment that the characters do is phenomenal to see and how they work within the composition of the panels to not only enhance the moments but bring us such depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is marvellous. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows a masterful eye for storytelling. The colour work is divine. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is stunning. How we see light sources and how that changes some of the shades and hues, the magic effects and that lyrium in his flesh all conspire to really make moments pop.

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I could never get tired of reading this groups adventures and with this quality and level of storytelling from the concept, through the writing to the artwork and ending with the lettering what we see here is all just brilliantly done.