Image describes “Sovereign” as an “epic fantasy in the tradition of Game of Thrones”. While this issue certainly demonstrates a comparable level of complexity, with massive swaths of exposition and a truly dizzying cast of characters, it fails to capture its audience’s attention in the same way. The accessibility that has made George R. R. Martin’s series a massive hit is nowhere to be seen here, and the final product suffers greatly as a result.
WRITTEN BY: Chris Roberson
ART BY: Paul Maybury
PUBLISHER: Image Comics
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASE: June 25, 2014
Review By: Ooknabah
Sovereign #4 is divided into three parts, chronicling the inhabitants of a city besieged by the undead. Names are scarce, as is context, even while additional intrigues play out over the course of the story. Not much actually happens over the course of the issue, although it all portends to greater action to come. Still, as a new, lost reader, it is difficult to care.
This may all be solved when the series is collected in trade format, as the dense plotting almost demands the ability to flip back to previous scenes to figure out how all the various storylines manage to fit together. Being unfamiliar with what has come before, there is no doubt that many details are passing me by unnoticed. However, there is little to encourage one to delve into those previous issues to retrieve that much needed set up based off what is presented here.
Chris Roberson’s writing captures the voice of your typical fantasy novel, however the individual voices of the characters are almost indistinguishable from each other and the long exposition that covers the first third of the issue fails to entice. Paul Maybury’s art manages to produce a unique look which captures a wide variety of designs, with mixed success. At the more emotionally charged moments of the story it captures the emotions of the characters or the horror of the undead that threaten to overrun our protagonists. At its worst, it comes across as rushed and amateurish.
Dense to the point of being almost impenetrable, Sovereign #4 presents a considerable challenge to the new reader. Perhaps readers of previous issues may be hooked at this point and will see fit to continue, but newcomers will have a hard time finding reasons to do so.
Ooknabah AKA Brent Hirose is a writer, actor and gigantic nerd from Vancouver B.C. You can listen to his podcast about that at HugeNerds.Podomatic.Com or check out his many other projects at BrentHirose.com