Pathfinder: Wake the Dead #1

This was a bargain-bin purchase from Most Excellent Comics and Games in Enfield CT USA on Free Comic Book Day 2025.

Title: Pathfinder: Wake the Dead
Issue: 1 
Publisher: Dynamite
Date: 2023
Writer: Fred Van Lente
Artist: Eman Casallos
Colorist: Jorge Sutil
Letterer: Tom Napolitano
Editor: Joe Rybandt
Cover: Steve Ellis

This is an adaptation of the Pathfinder tabletop roleplaying system. The story here is essentially meant to assemble the team of heroes as a bunch of characters on converging missions meet in a horrific city district of living flesh known as the Awful. There's a lot of posturing the eventually becomes fighting, and everyone gets to show off their moveset before some badder enemies arrive and we go to cliffhanger.

This was fine, but it had a lot of characters involved and none of their powers or skills was anything we haven't seen before. After the comic action is finished, there's a section detailing the game stats of some of the spells, items, and characters in the book, including the most memorable thing in this issue: the tragic backstory of the champion character Seelah. That would make a good comic adaptation, and I think I would have preferred Seelah in a solo book, or at least to start with her and build the team a bit more slowly.

Rating: 4.5/10

Swords of Sorrow #2 (Cover Variant C)

Another comic shop purchase from last summer. My review of the first issue of this series is here.

Title: Swords of Sorrow
Issue: 2 (Cover Variant C)
Publisher: Dynamite
Date: 2015
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Sergio Davila
Colorist: Jorge Sutil
Letterer: Erica Schultz
Editor: Hannah Elder
Cover: Robert Hack

I love the Frazetta-paperback-throwback look for this cover, including the "price tag".

With the swords distributed through the dimensions to the chosen warrior women, the question becomes how they will find common ground as the dimensional rifts keep throwing the characters together along with various elements of their respective worlds. You know, like hungry dinosaurs for example.

At least the language barrier won't be a problem. Apparently these Swords of Sorrow also function as babelswords.

The main focus here is on Red Sonja and Deja Thoris, who are rapidly emerging as the stars of this show. Their interaction is actually loads of fun, with good action mixed with dialogue. Gail Simone has an excellent grasp of the characters an great attention to detail for things like the varying gravity between Barsoom and Jasoom.

The plot is the biggest weakness so far. The villain is generic, and he does generic villain things like sending generic minions to attack the heroines, with mostly predictable results. Hopefully the story will dispense with these preliminaries in the next issue.

Rating: 5.5/10



 

Swords of Sorrow #1 (Cover Variant B)

Second review of the night! I bought this last summer (along with the second issue) at one of the comic shops I visited. This issue has a ton of cover variants. I bought the "Version B" cover, with beautiful art by Jenny Frison.

Title: Swords of Sorrow
Issue: 1 (Cover Variant B)
Publisher: Dynamite
Date: 2015
Writer: Gail Simone
Artist: Sergio Davila
Colorist: Jorge Sutil
Letterer: Erica Schultz
Editor: Hannah Elder
Cover: Jenny Frison

This is Dynamite's female-character crossover, written by Gail Simone. Red Sonja is really the central character, and it is her style and flavor that largely shapes this interdimensional fantasy story.

This issue is broken into a bunch of segments that introduce the various characters to the readers, who might not be reading their individual comics. Opening with Jana the Jungle Girl, the vignettes give us glimpses of Kato, Red Sonja, Dejah Thoris, Vampirella, Lady Zorro, and others.

I enjoyed getting reacquainted with characters I knew from the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, plus pulp and comics characters from the thirties through the seventies. The cast is fun, and Gail Simone's writing nails their personalities impressively, given the space limitations.

There is also some progress made on the overall plot, as the swords of the title are distributed, and we're introduced to the interdimensional power-players who are manipulating events that will eventually bring the diverse group of women together.

Considering how much is going on here, this reads pretty smoothly, although it does employ a lot of familiar tropes found in other multi-world crossover comics. There were some nice bits of subtle feminism (especially in the opening sequence with Jana), and a number of fun cliffhangers to get the various plotlines off and running.

The artwork is beautiful, and captures the styles of the different characters very well.

While it definitely had a similar feel to other crossover stories, Swords of Sorrow #1 did a good job with the small details, which will hopefully continue to distinguish it as the story progresses.

Rating: 6.5/10