Elfquest: Searcher and the Sword

Rating:
Summary: For Fun: Yes for Diversion, No for the Heart.
Review: If you're searching for a new entry in your heart and the true, passionate, perfect canon, SatS is a definite no-go. But it's a worthwhile page-flipper for fun. Read it as a what-if, world-pool curiosity, as a fine, fun diversion. Then forget you did. Make it a seperate piece in your remembrances and your collection, perhaps with some or most or all post-8 RC flights of fancy and-- again-- fun.

Nothing wrong with that-- glory days are singled out because they're singular. Maybe there'll be more magic later. Probobly not, but there's marvelous much to look back on. That's pretty rare.

No magic here. Kind of mucky and silly, but pretend some friend came up with it, over pizza and beer. Have a snorty giggle and say a so-what. See if your library will order this.

Rating:
Summary: Agghkkk!! --- Wolf filth!
Review: Close, never to be closer, one of us but not." This is the defining statement that describes how the reader feels after this book. All the previous books that 'let us in' so to speak, are now pushed off with this distance approach to the elves. The only reason I give it 2 stars is because of the art.
By the way, brings up another development. Wendy had traded in her flowing lines and shimmering detail to go all digital. As someone who uses Adobe for artistic purposes, I'm fully aware of the things that can go missing in relying on digital too much. Friends, this thing isn't just colored with computer aid, it is ALL computer generated. And no, folks, she isn't quite up there with Pixar studios, who just might have been able to pull it off. She is amateur and it shows. Period.
Heck, whatever she's doing, it's pixellated -- some lines are actually wavery- as if she was still practicing while drawing. Please, at least draw so that the darn pixels or whatever are not visible by the time the resolution is jacked high enough! Drawing is at heart organic in nature, and this book is false at heart, like the two Star wars prequels. The feeling I have about this technology takeover being the end-all and be all is better expressed in the words of Skywise after the death of Starjumper in book 7: "Then why am I so cold?"
The nadir, the absolute lowest point, the Jar Jar Binks of this story is the human who has a crush on Shuna. Bee. No, it's not a guy with a girl's name. Oh no, that I could handle. No, what we have here is a new tribe of humans who each take on an insect as their identity. *stops for a moment to clear out bile in throat, there it's gone - * As I was saying, you go from the Djun who was evil but awesomely cool, bone chilling, with a fully detailed city-state with its own culture and an caste system and everything, to a new tribe of humans who in 10,000 years modeled themselves on different insects. Yuk. And 'Bee' is the worst, he actually (not making this up) wears a Bee costume! The Bat would've been better!!
Please Wendy and Richard, PLEASE make this all a dream of Shuna's, like in Dreamtime, I'll understand - you made a mistake, were a little rusty or whatever . . .PLEASE no more Human Quest! Uncle! Uncle!
So, for what it's worth, don't say I didn't warn you. The 5 year wait for a new graphic novel by Wendy has brought us this. It should have been 10 years, or maybe not at all.


Rating:
Summary: I loved it!
Review: Despite all the negative feedback, I was quite taken with the story and was NOT dissapointed ( after a VERY impatient wait to read it )
The story has taken a different turn from those of the previous EQ novels, but it was not done in a distasteful way. The introduction of Shuna as a main character was only natural for the Pini's, since from the very begining the Elves have been trying to find a ballance with humans! It makes you dare to hope that, with Shuna acting as a mediator, that ballance will someday be found!
Im even more eager to read what comes next! Oh and as for the art, I think its beautiful! And its been LONG overdue to see some more of Wendy's beautiful art IN COLOR even!!!

Rating:
Summary: *sigh*
Review: I had high hopes when I heard Wendy was returning to do a new elfquest story, doing all the art and story herself, unlike with the largely mediocre medley that followed Kings of the Broken Wheel. Sadly, Searcher and the Sword fails to live of to the legacy of Wendy's earlier work. Sadder still, it fails to be good, or even passable, instead coming off as amaturish fanfic.

The story feels too rushed, moving quickly from incident to incident, yet being bogged down by the annoying inncesant first person narritive. Instead of showing, Wendy simply takes the easy route of having Shuna tell everything to the audience, there's hardly any subtelty to be found at all. Nor do the characters come across as having any depth, the only character "development" being a nesescity for resolving the storie's conflict. It's sad to see a character driven series like elfquest be reduced to the far less engaging plot driven style. The art as well leaves much to be desired for those who have seen Wendy at her best. The style often seems cartoonish, the detail much lower than usual, and the coloring often came across as to bright.

The Pini's better hope their partnership with DC brings them to a wider mainstream audience, because this latest offering is likely to alienante many of their loyal fans.

Rating:
Summary: Oh no . . .not HumanQuest - NO!!!
Review: I have finished reading this, friends, and I'm afraid I've got bad news. What EQ fans have dreaded has come to pass . . .not even the Rebels series was as heart-sickening.
We have entered the age of Human Quest.
The story is told from, for chrissakes, *Shuna's* perspective! This in itself might not be so bad, but the story becomes a jarring mess of 'put your head down' moments and sheer ridiculousness. For example, did you know Shuna has her period? ANd to top it off, the reader is treated to the sight of horny wolf-friends trying to mount her, so she is therefore banished -choke - -gag- to the Palace of all things!
This is only the beginning - and the general tone of the book suffers. The human perspective keeps it from flowing and totally removes the reader from the sense of immediacy that is necessary to keep a story like this from becoming laughable. Do you recall that all previous stories lack any sense of a narrator? No one WANTS to feel like this here is our story, boys and girls, this is our narrator, she is very conscious of herself in the story . . .ugh. It totally ruins it. The elves, even Skywise become completely alien. Long gone is the sense of 'Now' or intimacy with any of these characters that was so vital to the epic that was Elfquest and that has been 25 years in the making. What I dreaded, that the human worshipful viewpoint of the elves would take over, happens here. Maybe this is a device of Wendy's to cool all the readers off, so no one will even care if they all die, disappear or whatever. Basically it's like she's just burned out and just wants to meet a deadline. (Apparently she had hip surgery during production, but you know DC - Big Business roars, it gets) I couldn't believe, having re-read the entire EQ series back to back, how distant and aloof the elves all felt to me in this book. The gutwrenching scenes of the Palace War, or the pivotal moment when Rayek realized who Venka was . . . that sense of intimacy is all done away with in the tone of this meager 92 page volume. Yes, the price is heavy for a hardbound pamphlet, but they know we'll buy it anyway. This kind of thing is what I feared upon hearing about the DC takeover. Maybe the next narrator will be Batman or Robin, that's about all that could make it worse. Not even Wendy's art is able to resurrect this patched together mess. The brief moments of elf-life, Strongbow and Moonshade's love scene or Treestump's struggle in the Troll cavern are all at a remove that leaves one asking, how the heck did Shuna know that!? Was she in the tree with Moonshade and Strongbow when they were 'interrupted'? Maybe they did a special lock-send just for her to tell her all about it. Oh yeah, BTW, she can send too, isn't that something? Maybe this is just the beginning of everyon'e bugbear- the half human/elf character we know is coming. This kind of stuff just confirms it - no matter what Richard said 20 years ago. The elves have traded place with the humans, now *they* are the tribe of half glimpsed faces smiling and laughing while Shuna in all her angst stands on the outskirts, hoping, wondering. Quote: Close, never to be closer, one of us but not.

Rating:
Summary: Wendy and Richard at Their Best
Review: I was so thrilled with *The Searcher and the Sword* that I immediately bought an extra copy to send to a fellow EQ fan/friend. Granted, I'm not so picky about whether or not Wendy uses a computer on the artwork, so long as I can't tell -- and I couldn't. In my opinion, no comic book artist has ever even approached Wendy's amazing talent, and this book is no exception.

There are certain panels (a very intimate scene between Strongbow and Moonshade comes to mind) that I can't stop going back to -- there is an undeniably singular beauty in Wendy's ability to convey emotion and sensuality. *The Searcher and the Sword* is full of that beauty.

The story was almost gravy to me; really, I'm such a fan of the Pini's work that they can't go wrong (and I'm not talking about Worldpool or EQ stuff written and drawn by anyone else; I'm too much of an old-school EQ snob to truly enjoy those!) These elves are the Pini's very children, and it's obvious in this beautifully hardbound, full-color volume that those children continued to be well loved by their creator-parents.

Highly recommended!




Rating:
Summary: Not worth the wait
Review: This story reads more like a fan decided to write themselves into the story and simply add in the favorite characters here and there as a way to interact with them. The story is jerky with no good explanations as to why certain things have happened. For instance, why do we suddenly have the spirit of Strongbow and Moonshade's slain daughter fore-telling of mutant trolls and her mother's forth coming pregnancy. And a long missing elf suddenly pops up out of nowhere and it is no big deal. And at times, the story reads more like a public service message for abused women. The elves are totally out of the character that was developed for the last 20 years. This lack of effort on Wendy Pini's part is truly disappointing.

Rating:
Summary: Not quite what I hoped for
Review: To put it short and simple:
Instead of reading this, just pick up
and enjoy one of your good old Elfquest books.
This one just doesn't compare.

Rating:
Summary: What were they thinking???
Review: Well, I have to say, if this is the quality of work due to come out of the new EQ/DC venture... they really don't need to bother.

As mentioned in other reviews, the story is far too rushed, suffers from a whole bunch of cliche's and plot holes (don't even get me started on the "Zombie" trolls, or the miraculous ressurection of a character long assumed dead), and, I'm sorry, but there was NO reason for Kimo gaining the shapeshifting powers, except to amaze and startle the humans... when character development is included to push the story over a plot hump, what's the point?

Working in Photoshop seems to have made Wendy very very very lazy with her art... when I can see and count the PS effects (star brush used every time something is "magical", mosaic filter used for crystal and treasure effects, blurring on all of Kimo's transformation scenes) it made me wish she had stuck to the black and white work of Dreamtime, she at least put effort into not only the backgrounds (there seem to be far too many backgrounds where Photoshop was used to create them from scratch, and the figures seem to almost be floating in mid air, even with the shadows), but also to the general consistancy of the images... Kimo's puffy bangs disappear and reappear in a couple of scenes which just bother me.... and the amazingly beautiful shading of Strongbow and Moonshade on the first panel of page 19 doesn't carry over to the next two panels...

Having said that, there are some beautifully and wonderfully detailed panels... but rather than saving the story they just highlight what Wendy is capable of, and show the pages/panels around them for the less that perfect work that they seem to be. Take for example the top panel on page 5, Shenshen is beautifully rendered, good shadows and a really rounded feel to her... every single other Sun Villager in the panel is coloured with almost totally flat colour.

The story, as I said, has more cliches and holes than you could drive a herd of Shagback's through... there are too many "teasers"... how Shuna learns to send, how Kimo becomes a shape shifter (and why), Crescent's warning (and what does "Look for joy above, it is coming... look for danger below, it is there now!" MEAN anyway... and why include Crescent in the story at all if that is the only role she was supposed to play), Moonshade and Strongbow's new cub not getting a name right away (they're calling her "Hey you" until then maybe?), and in fact, the whole "conception to birth in less than a page" thing (why, just once, can't we have an elf pregnancy that actually takes more than 5 minutes to happen... look at Tyleet, she was pregnant for the whole of Hidden Years... made for good story).

This almost feels like a really long individual comic... like we only got half the story, or even the condensed version of a much longer tale.

Rating:
Summary: I enjoyed it
Review: What is it with people who want things always to stay the same? Yes, it's different from Pini's past works in that it is aparently computer generated and told from the view point of Shuna. So what? That doesn't make it bad. It's just a different way of telling the story. And if it really is her first attempt at drawing with a computer, it's not bad at all. Still, there is some of the subtlety missing that I saw in her earlier stuff. So maybe, it should only get 4 stars. However, I'd like to balance out some overly negative ratings. I've read it several times and I still think I got my money's worth. And I am sure the next will be even better.