'Arzhur, a disgraced knight, has taken on a new mission to restore his honor: save Princess Islen from the Black Castle. The only problem is, the mysterious Islen doesn't want to be saved...The reluctant pair must nonetheless cross the kingdom—pursued by a trio of sinister witches—in hopes of finding refuge with Islen's father, the king. But will their secrets catch up with them first?'
Fantasy is a genre that you don't often see in comics; of course super heroes are the big tradition, and there's a lot of science fiction and horror, but fantasy seems to be a genre that comes few and far between to the medium. As such, when I saw that Europe Comics were releasing a new fantasy book I was immediately interested in seeing what it was like.
In Shadows begins by introducing readers to Arzhur, a former knight who is down on his luck and seems to be wallowing in his misery. We don't know what's happened to him to get him to this point, but we see him as a man drowning his sorrows, and being looked down upon by other knights. Soon after he and his squire are approached by a trio of strange old women who want to hire him for a job.
With little to keep him in town, and with the promise of gold and a way of regaining respect amongst his peers, Arzhur agrees to travel to the Black Castle to rescue princess Islen, who is being held within by monsters. Equipped with a new sword, Arzhur travels with the old women and his squire to the castle. Fighting his way past a horde of strange creatures, Arzhur eventually comes face to face with the princess, and the huge monster guarding her. After slaying the creature Arzhur is shocked when the princess tells him that it was her friend. Even worse, the old women begin to try and drag Islen away to her mother, not her father as they had previously told; something that Islen seems terrified about.
Seeing that the old women have lied to him, and that Islen is in genuine fear for her life, Arzhur turns on the women, freeing Islen from their grasp. The old women, now revealed to be evil hag like creatures flee into the forest. Now Arzhur makes a promise to Islen, that he will take her to her fathers castle, keeping her safe along the way. Unfortunately, the hags have other ideas.
The set-up for In Shadows is probably one of the most iconic of fantasy tropes; off to save the princess from the castle. What I really enjoyed about this story, however, is how quickly this gets turned on its head and thrown out the window. Within a few pages of being hired to save the princess Arzhur was already at the castle, ready to go in sword swinging. At first I was left thinking that this seemed a bit too quick, that the story had skipped over a lot of stuff to get straight to the action; but the fact that this was still very much set-up for the real story was a delightful twist.
The real story here is of Islen and her family, of the fight between her parents, and her trying to figure out what kind of person she wants to end up being. In a lot of ways, this is very much Islen's story, rather than Arzhurs, and of the two of them she's the one we get to know the most as events unfold. We find out how her parents met, what their relationship was like, how she ended up in the Black Castle. In contrast, we learn that Arzhur is looked down upon by his fellow knights and feels guilt, but we never know why. The story is clearly holding back on this for a while, and it will be something that will be covered in later volumes, but for now it comes across like he's the supporting character to Islen; which is a nice twist on expectations.
The story we do get this volume is actually really good, and has some great twists and turns, and some really dark moments in it too. Come the end I was actually really disappointed that it was over already, and that I was going to have to wait to find out what happens next as I was fully invested in the characters and their story.
The artwork, provided by Vincent Mallié, is absolutely gorgeous. Mallie is able to bring this world to life in wonderful, detailed ways. The villages and towns feel dirty and run down, like they're lived in. The countryside can feel vast and empty one moment, or like lush, thick forest the next. And the characters all look distinct and clear, with all of them being instantly recognisable and having a physical look all their own. Some of the best stuff, however, are the creatures, the twisted animals and strange magical beings that make appearances throughout. Seeing these unusual things suddenly appear alongside the more mundane makes them stand out instantly, and the level of detail they have means that you'll spend ages just looking through everything, trying to take it all in.
In Shadows was an engaging and engrossing first volume, one that very quickly had me wanting to know more and delving deeper into things. This is going to be one of those books where I'm going to be eagerly waiting for the next volume, and will be reading it as soon as I can.
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