A weary and jaded D’Artagnan is drawn into a final conflict with the wicked Cardinal Richelieu, whose ruthless quest for power has led him to the supernatural. But the Last Musketeer can’t defeat these infernal enemies alone. Seven Swords #1 kicks off a swashbuckling adventure.
To save the world, he’ll need to join forces with seven iconic swashbuckling heroes: Don Juan, Captain Blood, Cyrano de Bergerac, to name a few. SEVEN SWORDS, who must overcome their host of differences and work together if they have any hope of thwarting Richelieu’s diabolical plans.
Seven Swords #1, published by Aftershock, picks up five years after almost all the Musketeers were killed, and finds D’Artagnan chasing down his arch-nemesis Cardinal Richaeu. The sequence showcases Riccardo Latina‘s artwork and pulls you into the comic. There’s a double-page spread around the seventh page that I spent a long time looking at; it shows the last Musketeer running along the outside of a church, but Latina pulls off one of the classic sequences of a character in multiple positions moving across the page really well. In fact, I kept reading the comic specifically because Latina and colorist Valentina Bianconi are an exciting pair.
It’s not that Evan Daughtry‘s script is bad, but after reading the previews, it feels like the comic does nothing other than show us how awesome D’Artagnan is and shows brief flashes of the other characters who will eventually be brought together. It’s not often a story treads water in the first issue, but that’s sort of how this issue feels as there’s not a lot to advance the plot beyond what you already know will happen (and ultimately hasn’t after the first issue).
It does feel at one point that Daughtry tries to sabotage the story with a reveal about certain action scene a few pages after it happens that’s supposed to add to the mystique of a character but instead ends up coming across as more of an afterthought than anything else (which for me lessened said sequence a little).
And yet despite my misgivings about the plot, Seven Swords #1 is a competent comic that has me curious enough to come back for the next issue – hopefully, there’ll be a little more time spent getting to the meat of the story, because that looks to have a lot of promise.
Story: Evan Daughtry Art: Riccardo Latina
Colors: Valentina Bianconi Letters: Dave Sharpe
Story: 6.5 Art: 8.6 Overall: 7.1 Recommendation: Read
Aftershock provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
Purchase: comiXology – Kindle – Zeus Comics – TFAW
