Relic of the Dragon
Writer: Adrian Benatar
Artist: Miguel Angel Garcia
Review by KrisK
Relic of the Dragon is a great idea. What if you wrote a comic in the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style of children’s chapter books? It is a charming notion, and I was happy somebody was doing it. It was one of those slap-yourself-in-the-head, how-did-I-not-think-of-this? ideas. Yes, it has been done before. DC did this with an Arkham Origins digital comic years ago. (This book is from IDW) But it is not as common a thing as you would think.
Relic of the Dragon follows Urik, a great viking warrior, who is told he must go on a dangerous quest to get the Relic of the Dragon! He isn’t thrilled about it, but hey, he’s a viking warrior, and it’s part of the territory. Urik goes on his quest, and you reach the first bifurcation point (aka fork in the road) on page four. From there, you come across various situations, where you must make a decision which may or may not lead to Urik’s death. You got a fifty-fifty shot. The deaths can be fairly entertaining, and when you have stumbled through all of the obstacles, you get the relic. Yay!
The writing has some humor to it. It is probably more difficult writing a non-linear story like this compared to the standard all ages comic, at least in terms of layout and structure. I wish I had gotten more dialogue from Urik; I liked his attitude. The art was superb. There were plenty of pages with great layouts, that reminded me of some of the Young Avengers work of James McKelvie. It was fun to follow Urik as he made his way across the pages in what looked like a superb back of a cereal box. (That is a compliment, I promise)
This comic could have been better. I know Choose-Your-Own-Adventure is traditionally a flip of the coin, but I feel like this comic would have been better if it involved some wisdom or skill. Thinking out your moves would have been more satisfying. I might be missing the point, though.
Verdict: Pass. It’s fun, but it’s expensive too. Hardcover is $7.95 used. (Lowest price I could find online.) New is $9.99. I can’t say it’s worth that ticket price for an adult. That being said, kids would eat this up. They can do it again and again, and it’s another way to introduce kids to comics.
