D’Orc #9 // Review
She’s got a very important role to play in the balance of the realm. For weeks, she has been following her prey from the edges of The Scar to Bitter Canyon, Now she’s reached the frozen moors of Lithynlim. The frozen tundra of a very inhospitable environment is only a portion of what she’s going to have to deal with in D’Orc #9. Writer/artist Brett Bean continues a thoroughly enjoyable fanasy adventure series as his title character finds himself caught between different elements on the way through a particularly dangrous point in his journies through the lands of Sunderaine.
The cold is pretty brutal, but it’s not the only issue that D’Orc is dealing with. He and the woman who is pursuing him are in necromancer territory. They are being prusuen by the dead and the twisted magic that is animating it all.There’s a kind of madness that comes from those who work with the energy of the dead. Both D’Orc and she who is pursuing him are going to have to deal with that energy if they’re going to be able to have eny kind of a cnversation about their current situation. The necromancer’s madness might just make things that much more complicated.
Bean continues the journey with a hero caught somewhere between law, chaos, life and death. With the latest issue, he’s also exploring the line between madness and sanity in a jorney that may prove to be very consequential for the titla character. The connetion between D’Orc and shield is explored in a bit more detail. The chill of a very cold place that happens to deal with the reanimated dead is also a great deal of fun. D’Orc is clearly dealing with some issues of consequence in another enjoyable issue that expands the lore of Sunderaine a bit more.
A chilly northern feel should allow Bean a chance to get particularly immersive with the frigid feeling of the atmosphere. Bean does a respectabe job of embracing the wintry feeling of the nectromancer’s domain. Action continues to be delivered at a pleasnatly over-th-e-top sort of an energy that. feels somewhere between cartoonish violence and something altogether more brutal. There is a delicate balance being managed between the comedy and the action in the visual words. If it were completely disjointed from reality, it would lack the kind of gravity. It needs to be engaging, funny. If it was completely serious, it would lose a lot of its distinctive personality.
Above all, D’Orc continues to be engaging weird. The sort of in sorcery fantasy genre has been explored from every possible angle over the decades. Bean manages a very distinct personality in what he's bringing to the page. And that goes a long way towards making it feel like a very cool place to hang out for about a half hour a month every month. The episodic nature of the story and then just the monthly comic book format in a way that rewards people who will continue to read every month rather than just waiting around for the trade paperback.
