Mice Templar Volume 4.1 HC
The Mice Templar series conscripts those long-anthropomorphized rodent mainstays of the comic-book genre into work their forefathers could scarcely have imagined: as the heroes, villains, and fools of a sprawling epic, replete with a complex backstory, vast mythology, and civilization-ending stakes worthy of Tolkien. Legend, the first part of the fourth volume, finds Karic, said to be the incarnation of the Templar’s very founder and last hope for peace, confronting the gods who thrust this prophecy upon him, even as the mad king Icarus ratchets up a war that literally shakes the heavens. Owning the appellation “fantasy epic” for all it’s worth, it communicates with an overheated fervor that, if you’re along for the ride, creates an appropriate sense of direness and urgency. Oeming forges mice into archetypal adventure figures but affords each a necessary humanity, while his battles are satisfyingly bloody, and his visual tone foreboding. Readers even slightly averse to fantasy will likely find this impenetrable, and this volume is assuredly not the place to start, but for those already on board, the series continues to deliver. --Jesse Karp