REVIEW: Legends #1

Creators/Writers/Editors: Gruffydd Thomas, Constantine Klavdianos, and Christopher Camilleri

Artwork: Ronald Orrego Leon

Publisher: Tableflip Entertainment and LR Visual Studio

Our story begins in a graveyard where the dead have been brought back by an unseen force or being. It used to be decades could go by without trouble. This is the third time in a month.

Our hero (no name is given in the entire issue) dispatches the zombies in fairly short order and has the bodies burned. This is the third time in a month he’s had to do this. What’s more disturbing is it’s happening on hallowed ground. Someone or something very powerful is behind this.

Our hero retires to Blacksite – 03 to rally the other agents around the world and think. He realizes that this all has something to do with a book. He gives “Red” a new assignment and then heads to Norway to investigate an unidentified aircraft.

In Norway he sees an immortal creature bring a lich back from the dead… only to incinerate it using a spell in a book. While they are leaving our hero captures one of the humans working for the immortal creature and interrogates them.

We don’t get to hear what is said but it makes our hero say, “Ready the jet. We have a problem”. The issue wraps up with incidents happening simultaneously in Alaska, Death Valley, Tibet, the Rocky Mountains, and Mexico City.

Art:

In some panels, the artwork is incredibly detailed and done perfectly, such as the panel with our hero and the smoking gun. The lich was incredibly well done. I would have liked the panels with “Red” to not portray her quite so stiffly, but she still looks good.

1 Star

Story:

This one feels like a modern-day mashup of Batman and Van Helsing with a touch of the Walking Dead to me. I like the concept a lot. That being said I found it hard to follow in places. A bit more character development (we don’t know our hero‘s name or who he’s working for) would go a long way toward making this a huge hit. I’m hoping we’ll get to see some improvement on that front in the next issue.

.5 Star

Dialogue:

This book is filled with action so there’s not as much dialogue as some of its contemporaries. What dialogue there is does a good job of helping move the story along at a nice pace.

1 Star

Editing:

There were a couple of things that I found to be distracting when reading Legends #1. The lettering was the biggest thing. I liked it that a traditional font wasn’t used. There are times when it was difficult to read because of the style and inconsistency for the size of the letters in a balloon.

The other issue was how there were a few times that the book said we were now at a certain point in the world, which is good. I did understand the need to redact after it. To keep a specific location secret to building suspense for the story why not say somewhere in Alaska, or just Alaska?

.5 Star

Mechanics:

It’s a different story concept but this book reminds me of Undiscovered Country. I couldn’t tell you the name of more than one or two characters in it and that title is on my pull list because the creative team keeps me wanting more.

Legends #1 is the same. If the creative team can find a way to make the reader have an emotional connection to a character they’re going to have a juggernaut on their hands.

1 Star

At the end of the day, I truly believe that with some minor tweaks Legends could be a hit for a long time to come. I look forward to seeing what’s to come.

Find Legends on ComiXology – https://www.comixology.com/TableFlip-Entertainment/comics-publisher/19695-0?irgwc=1