• SDCC 2010
• Comics

by Arcee on 08.02.10

As most of you may know by now, I am pretty big on comics that touch on the mystical sides of life. It is a big reason why I am a huge fan of titles like Zatanna, Doctor Strange, Witchblade, Penny for Your Soul, and so on. There are so many possibilities to be played with when you make a story based on something that cannot be easily explained that it makes it a very exciting subject to write about. So when we received a preview copy of a new series, Starmaker: Leviathan, about to come out from Dare Comics, I jumped at the chance to check it out.

Written and created by Adam Hamdy and illustrated by David Golding and Mark Roberts, Starmaker: Leviathan tells the tale of an unnamed man who looks to find what mystical properties are behind the Night of Shiva, or as it seems to refer to in the story, the Maha Shivarati. Using bribery and underhanded means, he has gained access to examine the blue kyanite that is seemingly at the center of the ceremony. But before he can break the mystical stone, one of the holy men tasked with guarding it senses something and manages to stop the man before he can damage it.

Taking him to another location where he can examine the stone without damaging it, he is left alone and he quickly is granted his wish to see what makes the stone so wondrous. As the secrets of what the stone holds and the secrets within him are realized, the reader is left wondering if everything that the man saw was a message of hope or of doom.

I must admit, I would have liked the story better had a little more light been shed on the story such as why the man is after these secrets, maybe even his name. As it is, the characters feel a bit lifeless as it is hard to connect to nameless characters. Not one single character is named in the story, and it is a bit underwhelming. Maybe the writer was holding back so that he wouldn’t give away too many secrets that you will discover later in the book forthcoming, but to not even give names… Anyway, with regards to the art, it is on par with some of the decently drawn books out there. It is nothing stunning, but nothing that is blowing my skirt up either.

I want to pick up this book when it is released, but with so little to go on and make a decision on it makes it that much harder to really buy what they are trying to sell you on in the preview. Maybe I will still give it a chance just because it is based on mysticism, but that is the main draw to the book thus far. And that is not much to go on to pick up a new series.