Rob reviews Dark Souls: The Complete Collection...
The world of the Dark Souls video game series is one of wonder. Underneath its undead and demonic exteria, there's a fascinating world connected with a vast degree of lore and intrigue. While Dark Souls 1, 2, and 3 touched upon their lore it wasn't necessarily explained openly to you. As such players had to discover the story for themselves. Whether it be through the game's many quests, character interactions, and item descriptions. With a vast overarching narrative, it's obvious that this world could be further expanded into other media - such as comics.
Dark Souls: The Complete Collection gathers four previously separate Dark Souls-inspired tales together into one volume. Produced by Titan Comics this volume collects the stories 'The Breath of Andolus', 'Winter's Spite', 'Age of Fire', and finally 'Legends of the Flame'. While these tales don't necessarily delve into the plot of the video games, they do a wonderful job of fleshing out past events and certainly shed light on some of the series' favourite characters.
The Breath of Andolus (George Mann, Alan Quah)
Kicking off this volume is George Mann's Breath of Andolus, which sees the Knight Fira journeying across the lands in search of the wyrm king Andolus, whose dying breath will stoke the First Flame, and allow the Age of Light to continue. Fira isn't alone on her journey and is joined by the Scryer Aldrich who just could be the same character from Dark Souls 3...
Anyway, in her search for the First Flame, Fira first has to find three artefacts that will lead her to the kiln and ultimately Andolus. Also suffering from amnesia - which is brought on by the characters Hollow state - Fira has to trust Aldrich who also has his reasons for resurrecting the wyrm king.
What then follows is plenty of action and love-building as Mann takes us to a few notable locations, and throws in some familiar faces too. While there isn't an exact time stamp for when the events of The Breath of Andalus take place, there's plenty of speculation that it falls between Dark Souls 2, and Dark Souls 3. This is further enforced by Aldrich not yet being a Lord of Cinder, and that dragons feature prominently which ties into the beliefs seen within Dark Souls 2's location Dragic.
Sadly this does mean that Mann contradicts the game's story at certain points, however, it is still an enjoyable read. Art comes from Alan Quah who manages to produce some gorgeous yet haunting landscapes and some pretty gruesome monsters. In true Dark Souls fashion, it's these monstrosities that steal the show. Quah creates some truly remarkable beasts, with the Barron being the most memorable.
Winter's Spite (George Mann, Alan Quah)
The second story in this collection is the aptly named Winter's Spite. Mann and Quah reunite to tell the story of the warrior Andred who's ventured into the frozen wastes in search of his ancestral sword. Captured by the creatures that call the wasteland home, Andred is first of all forced to fight in the arena. Upon escaping, he's then thrown from one extreme to the next and soon finds himself in the frozen mansion-house that overlooks Winterspite's cruel world. It's here where he'll meet a mysterious and powerful sorceress, and do battle with a warrior on his quest for redemption.
When compared to the first story, Winter's Spite tells a more personal tale. Mann captures the journey, desperation, and redemption of video games as we see Andred go to hell and back. The character is also fleshed out a lot more when compared to Fira. Mann utilises plenty of flashbacks to add exposition to why Andred is on this quest, yet it doesn't slow the pacing down.
The snowcapped landscape of Winterspite is a perfect location that's a great escape from the gothic locations of ruined castles and monasteries. Its open nature also allows Mann to create some pretty insidious action sequences that all have a grand scale to them. Of course, this is all helped along by Alan Quah who refines his style seen within the first story to create this desolate - yet dangerous environment and the hellish creatures that call it home.
The Age of Fire (Ryan O'Sullivan, Anton Kokarev)
The Age of Fire is arguably the story that people will primarily buy this collection for. Ryan O'Sullivan delves into the backstory behind the original Dark Souls to tell the story of Lord Gywn and the events that took place in the 'Age of Ancients'. To be fair O'Sullivan covers a heck of a lot as he chronicles the war between the dragons and the gods, right up to the fall of Gywn and his Silver Knights
With a lot of ground to cover, O'Sullivan keeps the pacing pretty quick. That does mean that while this story is essentially a mass lore dump, it does require some basic understanding. While characters such as Ornstein, Smough, and Artorias are present, there's not much given as to how pivotal these are in setting up the future seen within the game.
The artwork for The Age of Fire comes from Anton Kokarev. Kokarev brings a very distinct style to proceedings with some clean digital illustrations. While there are a few standout moments, nothing leaps from the page. For the most Kokarev seems to play it safe, which is a shame as in-game lore (and boss fights) paint these characters as being real badasses.
That being said, fans of a certain Knight of the Abyss and his wolf won't be disappointed...
Legends of the Flame (Various)
Rounding this collection off is Legends of the Flame, a series of short stories that cover a diverse portion of the universe. In an interesting turn, these shorts do have an overarching narrative that they're being told to a traveller by a mysterious fellow at a campfire.
Each of the twelve one-shots tells a complete tale much in the same way as the 'Animatrix' did to 'The Matrix'. By utilising a different creative team for each story, we get a great mix of individuality which combines well with the stories within. The only thing that remains consistent is the perpetual darkness that's hiding in the background.
Special mention goes out to Nick Percival, whose work here rivals that seen within his other work for 2000 AD!
Overall, Dark Souls: The Complete Collection is a must-read graphic novel for fans of the game. While it's accessible for those who've not experienced Hidetaka Miyazaki's magnum opus may struggle at times, it's still an enjoyable fantasy adventure - with plenty of horrors mixed in!
Rating: 8.5/10
Special thanks to Titan Comics PR Department for sending me a copy of the graphic novel for this review!
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