Rating: 3 / 5 – Worth a try
I really appreciate the fact that Aspen is allowing me to try out their #1 comics in 2013 for $1 each instead of the standard $3.99, I’m looking forward to giving them all a go. Legend of the Shadow Clan was the inaugural #1 in their “10 for $10” program, by David Wohl & Cory Smith, and this will be a 5 issue series.
We get introduced to who I assume are the bad guys for the series, what seems to be the Shadow Clan, and various members of the Himura family. The words I used in that previous sentence are a key indicator of my feelings for this issue. “I assume” “seems to be”. This issue had a lot of set up and I didn’t feel I got a lot of forward story momentum, the pacing just didn’t seem right to me. I’d have liked to see a lot more about the Shadow Clan itself and some more development of what was used as the cliffhanger for this issue as a part of this issue. The introductions of the members of the Himura family could have waited until #2. Given the amount of development for the Himura kids, I’m guessing they’ll play fairly major roles as the story plays out.
I’m guessing this will read better as a collected edition where the reader will have access to the full story. As a standalone #1, it seemed weak in that it didn’t sell me on coming back for #2 at the full price of $3.99
That said, it’s definitely worth a try for $1, not every reader is going to have the same reaction to the storytelling that I did and it wasn’t a bad comic, just not an exceptional one.
bob@comicspectrum.com
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