Thursday, December 19, 2024

Sword Of Sorcery - New 52!


Sword of Sorcery collects the series of the same name. The series featured Amethyst, bringing back a world I looked at few years ago here. My interest in getting hold of this series was mostly the back-up features for Beowulf and Stalker, but I've always been impressed with the Amethyst stories. So let me begin there. 


We meet a young girl who is an outsider because she and her Mother are always on the go. We quickly learn she is a girl with grit, and then we learn she's not of this world. She was brought to Earth to hide her out by her out of her Aunt's clutches. She is a new world in which politics are brutally pursued by those in power, but she very quickly adapts to this new universe and to her new superpowers. This is a story well told of a young woman's coming of age by writer Christy Marx and artist Aaron Lopresti. These stories are gorgeous. John Constatine is a regular guest in the series and one of my favorite villains, Eclipso, makes a visit. The arrival of Eclipso changes the balances of power in this world and old enemies are forced to become allies to face him. 

Here are the covers for the series. For more on the back-up features check down below. 









And now for Beowulf and Stalker. 


For the first three issues of this series the back-up feature was Beowulf. It was full-blown reimagining of the hero as we are cast some undated time into the future, but it's a future in which at first glance one might think they were back in olden times of the Danelaw when the poem of Beowulf was inspired and composed. Quickly we learn differently as polished technology is in evidence. Beowulf it turns out is a super-soldier of some sort from the past and when he is called upon to help with the murderous Grendel, he responds with a berserker rage which leaves only the very young Wiglaf to lead him. When he's settled down, he gets to being more of a hero and confronts the dread secret of Grendel and Grendel's Mother. This one caught me completely by surprise and I enjoyed it thoroughly. As is evidenced by the above cover for DC Univers Presents, Beowulf found his way into the modern world of the New 52 as well. 


As for the Stalker, his revised story begins in the past when a brutal king finds his wife dying and makes a deal with the Devil for a soul. But as usual the Devil finds a loophole which brings misery to Stalker. He is "gifted" with immortality to regret his choices and becomes a killer, both in war in peace. When the Devil reappears in the modern day to Stalker and promises him some resolution if he will only find a certain girl, Stalker agrees and does the job quite quickly. But as usual with the Devil there is a twist which causes Stalker to revolt against him. It ends poorly. 


And that wraps up my look at these Adventure heroes. Out of the batch we got one true hit (Warlord) and one impressive run (Claw the Unconquered). The rest fell to Earth pretty quickly, though I am delighted to know that the folks at DC have not forgotten them even after all these decades. 

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