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Knights Of The Golden Sun #1 Review: Doesn't Quite Shine Brightly Enough

Knights of the Golden Sun is Mark London and Mauricio Villarreal's new comic about the Angels (knights) of heaven (the golden sun) fighting Lucifer, Death, and the fallen. That matter-of-fact description is about it, to be fair.

Knights Of The Golden Sun #1 Review: Doesn't Quite Shine Brightly Enough

This is a narratively confusing first issue, which is why I find hard to recommend anyone pick it up. It's not terrible by any means — it's fine. It's just that "fine" just won't move me much, and I unfortunately didn't feel much of anything other than the aforementioned confusion.

The time jumps felt untethered, which was compounded by (or perhaps a result of) a lack of a sense of purpose. I've read this book going on three times now and I can't tell you what the endgame is here. Sure, it seems that some of the characters have some drive to do some things — I'm just not sure what that is. More importantly than that, I'm not intrigued enough to find out, either. That said, I'll definitely read the second issue, because they can't play out what they want in just this one act here.

For what it's worth, I don't think the time taken to linger over the happenings over the various historical periods helps. I basically left each read (after it settles from time displacement) just as confused as the last read. Perhaps my befuddlement stopped me fully engaging with any character work on the page.

Again, this is not a terrible comic. It's just fine. Take Villarreal's imagery, which is, unfortunately, video game accompaniment-level "fine".

It's a glossy sheen style that feels computer generated by algorithm at times. Movement on page works well enough, and it does a good job of relating the story (knowing that the problems are structural) such that it is. So perhaps this "sheen style" is just Mr. Villarreal's colouring style, and that does unfortunately leave a lot of the comic a bit emotionless.

Basically, when I put down this book, my reaction was, "Huh." And then I went and did the dishes.


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Eliot ColeAbout Eliot Cole

When I say that you should buy something, please understand I say that in full knowledge that the prices of comics are just flat out wrong. I'm talking to the select few with enough disposable income to actually pay $3.99 for ~20 pages, often less. Anyway, me? I'm a generally affable chap, happy to shoot it over a pint of proper beer (that's ale to some), I read basically anything, but I've found I'm now finally learning to love the small press / self-published scene a little more, even though I'm a relative newcomer to it (10y).
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