Night’s Dominion by Ted Naifeh is a magical blending of superheroes and thieves set in the medieval fantasy world known as Umber. The story follows the Bard, the Acolyte, the Asp, the Magus, and the barmaid, Emerane, as they pull off the heist of a lifetime, and ultimately decide if they want to save the city that has let them down a few too many times.

Night’s Dominion #1 is an interesting first issue in that it zigs and zags all over blending various genres for an entertaining read. When it kicks off, the comic feels like a fantasy roleplaying game story with a party coming together to go on some quest. That quest is revealed to be a heist. Yes, this is Ocean’s Eleven in a fantasy setting, but there’s more! There’s also superheroes! A mysterious character who looks like a steampunk-ish take on a modern superhero makes an appearance, adding in another direction for the issue. And it all comes together to form like Voltron creating something exciting and interesting.

With all of those elements together, Night’s Dominion still reminded me a lot of a standard fantasy adventure, and that’s not a bad thing at all. A lot of that is due to Naifeh’s art which is very focused on that fantasy setting. There’s not much that really takes you out of that, other than a certain superhero-ish character that shows up. The characters themselves are pretty standard fantasy classes. There’s the bard, the cleric, the alchemist, the thief, and the assassin. It’s your basic D&D party. The look of them all is what I’d expect for that sort of characters and the setting is a blend of high fantasy with a little Assassin’s Creed. Again, like the genre, the look of the comic works really well and blends together to create something interesting.

If you like D&D adventures, or Assassin’s Creed, or the idea of superheroes in a fantasy setting, Night’s Dominion is one to check out. Ted Naifeh is great when it comes to entertaining comics that really build a world, and this looks like it’ll be no exception to that.

Story: Ted Naifeh Art: Ted Naifeh
Story: 7.9 Art: 7.9 Overall: 7.95 Recommendation: Read

Oni Press provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review. Final order cut-off is August 15.