Dark Tower: The Long Road Home #1 Review

Gunslinger Roland Deschain is back in another Marvel mini-series.

The first issue of Dark Tower: The Long Road Home is more of what was found in the Gunslinger Born mini-series. With the Big Coffin Hunters hot on his tail and his lover Susan Delgado dead, Roland and his ka-tet must flee into the desert.



As much as I want to enjoy Marvel's Dark Tower comics I just can't bring myself to do so. Peter David has written these books in such a distanced perspective that completely removes me from the characters and story. It's so hard to fall into the universe and allow yourself to be swept off your feet when you feel like you're watching the action from above. Plus, I can't feel for any of the characters in the book because they are all fairly underdeveloped. I need a book that I can connect and relate to and it just seems impossible to do so with Dark Tower.

I do, however, love Jae Lee's visuals. The Korean-born artist is the only reason I continue to purchase and read this book. His pencils are so clean and refined and he uses negative space better than any artist I can think of.



Many praised Gunslinger Born as one of the best mini-series of 2007. Quite a few have also claimed to really enjoy the first issue of The Long Road Home. I am in no way claiming that it is a bad book. However, it is not for me. I've tried countless times to give it another chance but it doesn't grow on me.

One Sentence Review: Not my cup of tea. | 7.1/10

Are you a fan of Dark Tower who thinks I'm totally off my mark with this review? Leave me a comment.

The second issue of Dark Tower: The Long Road Home hits shelves on April 30th.

Cheers.

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Dark Tower #1 Review

The Marvel produced, Stephen King directed hype machine has finally arrived. Does it live up to its anticipation?

I was hesitant to pick up Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born today. Sure, it's been getting A LOT of attention all over the net and many are saying this is the comic book event of the year (It also achieved the first ever midnight comic book launch), but I wanted to see what all the fuss was about before I blindly dropped down $4.50 Canadian on the title. Well, I'm glad I picked the book up, in fact, I'm tempted to go search out the variants and snap them up as well, but I'll probably restrain myself.

The comic tells the back story of Roland of Gilead, the protagonist from Stephen King's The Gunslinger novel. Roland is the son of a dead gunslinger and must prove himself to earn his pistols and his pride. Now, at first I thought this plot seemed cliche and tired, but it's handled very well in the first issue and looks as if it's going to get better as the book progresses.



It's being written by Peter David (X-Factor), which is a plus, as the writing has a strong narrative style, but it's well done and not too over the top. Jae Lee (Namor the Sub-Mariner) has the pencil duties, with his layouts then being painted by Richard Isanove. The art is just flat out amazing. Extremely tight compositions and great use of blacks and shadows. It's just a pleasure to look at.

I can't wait for the next issue of Dark Tower to hit the shelves of my comic shop. Marvel seems to be doing a great job with this title and it looks like it has lived up to the hype, at least so far.

Let me know what you guys think of The Dark Tower. Leave a comment below.

Cheers.

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