Fireborn #1 // Review
Aaron Hillburg doesn’t love the fact that his mom wants him to pick-up pizza on the way home. He’s okay with the pizza in general. He’s just not that thrilled with the idea of watching another episode of Golede. Batchelor with her. What’s worse: he’s going to be late. She’s going to worry. And he’s not going to be able to explain. And these are the least of his worries in Fireborn #1. The writing team of Curt Pires and Franklin Jonas begin a new contemporary fantasy adventure with artist Patrick Mulholland. Is the type of story that’s been told quite often before. That doesn’t make it any less entertaining.
On his way back home Aaron ran into someone. Literally. It was an old guy. Stranger who is clearly on the run. I have the two of them slammed into each other.Aaron Quincy, the egg. The old man was quite surprised at this. And then there were people. People who wanted the egg. And so Aaron wasn’t exactly going to be able to tell his mother that he was late in getting home because he founded with an ancient powerful magic dragon egg. She wouldn’t believe him if he told her. And there’s a good chance that he doesn’t want her to worry. Nevertheless, he’s in great danger.
Back in the 1980s Jim Shooter created a character who had inadvertently inherited a powerful intergalactic weapon that made him a target for those who wanted it for themselves. That wasn’t the first such story. Powerful weapons have been falling into the hands of people who don’t understand them for a long time in science fiction and fantasy. There’s Witchblade, the Greatest American Hero and a million others. The writing team on this particular series seems to have found a unique angle on the old tropes that should be if nothing else a lot of fun moving forward.
Mulholland edges the dark fantasy into the page with a stylish flare that includes a tremendous amount of detail. Also a tremendous amount of impact. Every now and again, but really throws powerful impact across the page in a way that feels invigorating and refreshing. And while there’s nothing particularly visionary about the visuals that are being fused onto the page for this particular series, it’s stylish enough to come across with a very distinctive presence.
It’s going to take a while before.Aaron will have the opportunity to feel like anything other than a relatively generic young male protagonist. he’s off on the right foot, though. There’s more than enough that’s appealing about him. And there’s no reason why he can’t make a name for himself in a wave that feels interesting and unique. The script travels a little bit too closely to science fiction and fantasy action tropes to suggest that there’s going to be a whole lot about the protagonist. That’s going to seem particularly new right away. There’s a lot of background that has to be delivered. There’s a lot of action that has to be delivered. Once they get all of that out-of-the-way, he might actually come across us being someone deeply interesting. It’s just going to take time.
