Mythstalkers #1
Review by Everest
Story:
Art:

Written by Douglas Barré
Art by Jiro
Colors & Lettering by Quantum FX

Published by Image.
Price: $2.95.
My verdict: Save your money for something better...

The premise: A team of extraordinary gentlemen (only archetypes this time, however, not actual characters from Victorian novels) and one woman go out in search of mythical creatures, usually in an attempt to debunk the stories, but they’re willing to wreak some havoc on the poor unfortunates they run across; then they all report back to headquarters, where they examine the creatures they’ve brought back…or mount their heads on a wall, depending on the condition in which the creatures make the trip.

Issue #1 opens with the team looking for a troll of some sort that emerges from a lake in the misty twilight and terrorizes the local residents of this small countryside. As each member tries his own way (and fails) to subdue the creature, it is finally left to the take-charge woman in the group to put the troll out of everyone’s misery permanently. This leads to what is supposed to be some real tension between team members when they get back to HQ, but it’s not very convincing. Here we also discover that the mysterious organization, The Ministry, has got arrest warrants out for all the team members, who have, apparently, been breaking some of the rules of ‘myth stalking.’ We don’t know what those are yet, but it looks like we’re going to find out...the issue closes out with the team attempting to get out of England and head for the island of Crete and their next mission, the famed Minotaur.

Overall, this book is…okay. I wouldn’t go any further than that. It’s not great; it’s not bad. There’s no real tension anywhere in this book. We haven’t had time to identify with any of the characters yet, so we’re not terribly concerned about what happens to them. What drives this book and makes it remotely interesting is the same thing that drives this team to go out and search for legends, fables, and myths – the legends, fables, and myths themselves. Those are interesting. Colonel Mustard, Professor Plum, and the rest of the Clue characters aren’t what push the book; it’s the critters that they’re going after. I suppose the protagonists are marginally interesting, but for the most part, they are caricatures, not characters.

The writing is perhaps not quite as good as the art, which is all computer generated and, if not great, is at least interesting. Overall, there seems to be a rash of these sorts of pseudo-historical books coming out lately, but for the money, Rex Mundi is still easily the best option out there.