Long ago, the gods locked away Xir–a demon who tried to destroy the world by drowning everything. But in the Sea Serpent’s Heir Book 1: Pirate’s Daughter, a young girl named Aella learns firsthand that forever doesn’t always mean forever. Sea Serpent’s Heir: Pirate’s Daughter is written by Mairghread Scott, drawn by Pablo Tunica, and published by Image Comics. 

Aella lives on Kinamen Isle, where she wants nothing more than to travel the world to escape her boring life. Her mom frequently sails away to trading fairs, leaving resentful Aella behind. But when the Church of the First Light arrives on Kinamen, hunting demons, Aella learns that her life, her very existence, isn’t as boring or mundane as she thought. 

Her neighbors are mages and assassins working for the infamous pirate The Queen of Mercy, who happens to be her mother. As if things couldn’t get worse, Aella learns that she is the demon the Church of the First Light is hunting: she is Xir reincarnated. Aella is understandably furious that everyone has lied to her for her entire life. And she’s equally upset about learning that she’s a demon. She wanted to leave Kinamen and spend more time with her mother, but not like this.

While her mother and crew want to sail away with Aella so she’ll be safe from the Church of the First Light, Aella believes that she and Xir can be separated. To attempt this, she needs to find the prophet that told the Church of her existence. And she’ll need the help of Bashir, a member of the Church, to get there. It’s a risky plan.

Aella’s emotional journey is the foundation of Sea Serpent’s Heir. Xir’s best hope for destroying the world is for Aella to let him take control. But she doesn’t want him to take control and destroy anything. She won’t even let her mother kill Bashir. She wants to save everyone she can. However, if Xir can make Aella angry enough to want revenge, he can use her to unleash his rage. 

Sea Serpent’s Heir is beautifully illustrated and colored. Even as the narrative gets progressively darker, the art maintains a whimsical feeling. And the character designs are unique and memorable. 

Unfortunately, there is a noticeable problem with the Sea Serpent’s Heir. The quality of the lettering is inconsistent, especially with the spacing between letters and words. This is especially evident with the use of cursive. It’s next to impossible to read at first glance. During the prologue, there’s a poem about the creation of Xir that took me a few tries to read. Part of it may be the fact that I don’t read cursive often, but it was difficult to differentiate letters such as ‘r’ and ‘n.’ 

There are also issues with the speech bubbles. At times, there’s a lot of text in one panel, interfering with the flow of the art. 

Despite the lettering problems, Sea Serpent’s Heir Book 1: Pirate’s Daughter is a fun read with interesting world-building and a plot that leaves you wanting to know what will happen next. 

GRADE: B