Cover to Dragon Age: Until We Sleep #1, art by Anthony Palumbo. EA/Dark Horse.
Julian Titus is a writer/editor for PixlBit.com and the host of the Nerds Without Pants podcast. You can read him here every week in his Transformers Roll Out column, covering IDW's Transformers books. This week, he's taking an advance look at Dark Horse Comics' new mini-series based on the best-selling Dragon Age video games...
The comics based on video game developer BioWare have been pretty hit or miss, with some of the Mass Effect books being solid while the Dragon Age books kind of flounder. While it’s too early to tell if Dragon Age: Until We Sleep will be worth the ride, the first book sets things off on the right foot.
This is the third mini-series based on the second Dragon Age game, following the exploits of King Alastair of Ferelden as he’s joined by two of the less…trustworthy heroes from that game - Isabella and Varric. Just as in the game, Varric serves as the narrator of this story, and his knack for embellishment is one of the best things about this issue. Writer David Gaider (along with co-writer Alexander Freed) continues the witty dialogue that he’s honed over the course of both the video games and the comic books, keeping a sense of consistency throughout the extended Dragon Age universe.
Alastair is on a mission to find his father and former King, Marric, long thought to have been dead. Marric has fallen into the hands of a blood mage (read: really evil wizard), and the reasons as to why Marric’s blood would be so sought after are brought to light here. There’s more to the royal bloodline than meets the eye, and it’s an interesting potential thread for Dragon Age moving forward.
Chad Hardin once again provides pencils for this series as he’s done in the past, and his artwork is generally great, although I find a lack of momentum to the action scenes. For the most part, he captures the look and style of the Dragon Age universe, and he’s a good fit for the book.
I’m curious to see where this mini-series is going. With a huge cliffhanger at the end of this issue and only two more left it will be interesting to see how things wrap up.
(Dragon Age: Until We Sleep #1 will be released on Wednesday, March 27. You can check out a seven-page preview of the first issue below.)
