Summoners War: Legacy #1

Summoners War: Legacy #1

Skybound/Image Comics 2021

Written by Justin Jordan

Illustrated by Luca Claretti

Coloured by Giovanna Niro

Lettered by Deron Bennett

Skybound dives into the wondrous world of Summoners War, the popular mobile game where magical monsters are summoned in a never-ending battle of good vs. evil!

Rai knows there’s only one way out of her nothing town—to become a summoner! But when she’s recruited by Abuus Dein as an apprentice, she embarks on the adventure of a lifetime and is thrust into a war for the fate of the world.

I had no idea this was based off a game which I am now assuming is like Pokemon or Yu Gi Oh or along those lines. I just thought this was going to be another fantasy series full of magic users and fighters and it still kind of is only it’s different than I imagined and kudos to Justin for that. So for those like myself that don’t game this is great introduction to a series and you don’t need any prior knowledge of it to fully enjoy this book. I might actually say this is good for pretty much all-ages as well as it has so many great elements that will thrill readers of any age and gender.

I like the way that this is being told. The story & plot development we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented extremely well. The opening for example is a perfect introduction to the characters and Justin manages to tie into that the character development and the story development in some fantastic ways. The character development is strong and solid and we get a good sense of who these characters are, as well as the possible schoolyard crush going on, through the dialogue and how the characters interact with one another. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages introducing us to this world, these characters and the story it leaves us wanting to know and see more.

I do appreciate how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story are both subtle and overt. The balance of the two is fantastic and it’s nice to see this kind of depth and complexity to the storytelling. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as move the story forward is very delightful indeed.

The interiors here are lovely. They do remind me of a cross between a high end cartoon, I’d say the kind I grew up on and not this newfangled garbage on tv now, and classic comic book style artwork. The linework is great, strong, clean and crisp and how the varying weights are being utilised to create the detail work is marvellous. I would like to see more backgrounds being utilised and we do some great usage of them here but more would be better. Still with how we see the composition within the panels bring us some great depth perception, sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a solidly talented eye for storytelling. The creativity and imagination is beautifully rendered and I really like these creatures that summoned as they have this foreign yet familiar aspects to them that make incredibly interesting. The colour work is fabulous! How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is also extremely well rendered.

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I’m actually really excited for this as it has a very strong story element that goes nicely with the whole fantasy setting. That we have two very impetuous teenagers eager to prove themselves and disregard their mentor is totally relatable to and it many ways it makes them more endearing to the reader. This is a very smartly written story with some wonderful visuals and it should be one of the more solid offerings you are going to be reading.