Seven Soldiers: Klarion the Witch Boy

(DC, 2005)
™ and © 2005 DC Comics, Inc.

Grant Morrison’s Seven Soldiers gets high marks for ambition as it weaves its tale through seven four-issue mini-series and a pair of bookend editions. His more-unlikely-than-magnificent seven soldiers aren’t traditional costumed heroes, but their diverse natures make for a thrilling epic that mixes genres with reckless abandon.

Morrison has revamped Klarion—originally created by Jack Kirby as a foe for The Demon—into a clever and abrasive witch-in-training, a future protector of his lost city of Croatoan. But the young man is drawn to the world beyond Croatoan, a world that, like his own, is menaced by the alien Sheeda. There is weirdness aplenty here, but, thus far, my interest outweighs my confusion. I don’t know if I like Klarion, but I do want to see what he does next.

Artist Frazer Irving delivers appropriately moody art but comes up short on backgrounds and facial diversity. Colorist Irving relies too heavily on a monotonous greenish-blue. It’s good work but it does drag after several pages. This issue also loses a full star for failing to include Klarion’s creator in its credits. Bad form, that.

— Tony Isabella

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