The Mighty Barbarians #3 // Review
Morgan Le Fay has a sister: Claudia. When they were kids, Claudia used to weave magic that would turn the paws of little cats into ice. Evidently, she liked watching them slide around. Suffice it to say, Morgan doesn’t like her sister. She’s got an orb that Morgan needs, so she’s going to have to deal with her anyway in The Mighty Barbarians #3. Writer Michael Moreci continues high fantasy in an ancient time with the aid of artist Giuseppe Cafaro and colorist Barbara Nosenzo. Morgan, Kull, Anansi, and company continue their adventures in a fun encounter with dark magic that is bound to the page with some degree of flair.
Claudia’s citadel doesn’t seem to have anyone defending it. This is a bit disconcerting given how evil she is and how many enemies she must have. She’s powerful, but she would have to have SOME kind of sentinel standing in front of the immensity of it all to at least stand watch. Morgan is musing on this when the snake appears. It’s huge...roughly the size of a massive watchtower. The barbarians are going to have their hands full just getting in to see Claudia. There’s no telling what awaits them if they can survive long enough to get inside her citadel.
Moreci is working with a full cast of barbaric legends. These are the heroes. Some of them have rarely come across as appealingly as Moreci is managing in this series. There’s a sparkling sense of humor and timing that breathes through his dialogue. His wit looks particularly good on Morgan. Morgan Le Fay has NEVER come across as cool as she does here. And here she’s dealing with the complicated task of trying to save all of existence...with a group of barbarians. It’s a fun adventure with a solidly contemporary aesthetic resonating through the dialogue.
There’s a clean brutality to Cafaro’s art that swiftly slices across the page. That alone wouldn’t be good enough to be a perfect pair for Moreci’s writing, though. The art needs to match the writing’s wit. Thankfully, it does. Cafaro has a sparklingly clever sense of timing in the delivery of the action that matches wits with the humor without undermining the overall brutality of the action. More than this, the artist delivers beautifully in the sense of magic animating the page...a magic that’s made all the more palpable with the immersive coloring of Nosenzo. She makes some deeply beautiful choices for the color of power and the ambient atmosphere in the background.
Sword and sorcery fantasy has such a distinct look. It’s one of the easiest genres to bring to the page. Send a few heroes on a quest and give them some monsters. Let them have fun. It’s a format that’s literally been around since the dawn of storytelling. It’s also one of the most difficult things to do well. It’s a tiny, little indie comic book, but The Mighty Barbarians manages to nail the spirit of fun and action in an impressively satisfying adventure.
