With Valeros having told his story in the previous issue, Pathfinder #2 brings us Kyra’s tale. Valeros interrupts the issue by expressing his concern that this is going to be a preachy religious screed. Kyra doesn’t alleviate concerns all that much, since the first thing she does in her story is loudly proclaim that she’s far too holy to drink wine at a tavern.
If you’re like me and think that the Dungeons & Dragons comic Legends of Baldur’s Gateended its five-issue run far too early, I have good news – Minsc and company are back for more heroing!
As a series, Pathfinder: Origins scratches many itches of mine. Although the six stories are all interconnected, they are presented as a series of one-shots – a story format that I think the comics industry needs more of. Each one-shot reduces the cast significantly, giving us more character development for each of our heroes. As an added bonus, this series also introduces the other six iconic characters from the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, showing us what these other adventurers are up to.
The series picks up a few weeks after Pathfinder:City of Secrets ended, with our heroes trying to track down the puppetmaster behind the conspiracy that threatened Magnimar. Unfortunately, local venture-captain Sheila Heidmarch won’t allow them access to the Pathfinder Society’s vault – and for pretty good reasons.
Pathfinder: City of Secrets #6 wraps up the series. With the defeat of the succubus that had been murdering priests in Magnimar, our heroes have only one loose end to wrap up – a group of faceless stalkers that are quietly taking over the city.
In the last issue, the bad guys did a hit and run on our heroes, injuring but failing to kill Kyra. This issue opens up with the group hot on their trail. They quickly learn that the villains not only cut out the hearts of priests of the sun goddess Sarenrae, but they’ve also taken the bodies of some of the fallen faithful.
Last issue ended with an assassin about to skewer Kyra. Pathfinder: City of Secrets #3 changes the scenery a bit and begins with Ezren walking into an obvious trap.
Pathfinder: City of Secrets #2 starts with a bit of a bait and switch. See, last issue ended with a group of thugs stupidly deciding to ambush Kyra and Merisiel. So while this issue begins with our heroes delivering the righteous beatdown we were all expecting, it ends rather quickly…
Following the conclusion of its first volume, the Pathfinder comic series went on a six-month hiatus. Then it returned in new, relaunched glory as Pathfinder: City of Secrets. The book reemerged with Leandro Oliveira providing better art than ever before and Jim Zub and his stable of fantasy RPG tropes returning to writing duties.
I’m not a huge fan of the constant relaunches that dominate the comic book industry, but Dynamite handles it better than mainstream companies like Marvel and DC. Specifically, there feels like a reason the reboot is happening. The last volume focused on our heroes’ adventures around the small town of Sandpoint. Now with some experience under their belt, they’re off to a new city. That means a new environment, a new style of adventure, and thus a new volume. Yes, sales still drive the idea of a relaunch, but in this case it really feels like our heroes are embarking upon a new chapter of their lives.
After fighting a dragon to start this story arc, having our heroes face a bunch of rats to begin Pathfinder #11 seems a bit anticlimactic. But at least there are a lot of them…so much so that they’re even crawling along the edges of the panels.
Even with more than 1,500 monsters in the various Pathfinder bestiaries, there’s still no monster more iconic than a dragon. So it was only a matter of time until the Pathfindercomic series broke out a dragon fight. You would expect such a fight to be the climax of a story arc, but we’re only midway through. So what’s going on?
Charlie Brooks 