Eve of Apocalypse
No. 1 in the Ragnarök series
by Myung-Jin Lee, Richard A. Knaak
translated by Lauren Na
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TokyoPop (Los Angeles): 21 May 2002. Trade paperback: 192 pages. ISBN-10: 1-931514-73-9 Suggested retail price: $9.99 (US) Tags: Fantasy; Graphic Novel; Manga; spells; swords; valkyries Tactical strength: [5/10] |
This first volume in the Ragnarök series tries to pack a lot of information into a small space and tends to lose the reader along the way. I'm sure that after reading future volumes, much of the action and character relationships here will makes much more sense. This volume follows three sets of main characters. First, Fenris Fenrir seeks the reincarnation of Balder, a fallen God. For some reason yet unexplained, the gods have sent valkyries to stop Fenris's quest, but Fenris uses her fighting skills along with magical augmentation to recover Balder's sword and continue her quest.
Second, we have Chaos a fighter and Iris a magician. The two battle face worms to collect the bounty. Lidia, a treasure hunter, starts tagging along with Chaos and Iris, hoping to pilfer treasures from Iris's father, the head of an ancient village rumored to have a cache of relics.
And third, Skurai has made a covenant to the sword Talatsu to feed the sword the blood that it needs. Skurai seems to get something out of the deal, probably immortality, but this volume doesn't make the relationship completely clear.
I like the artwork in Ragnarök. You get a nice sense of motion and scale. I thought the story cut too quickly between plot lines, often without any indication, which leads to momentary confusion as you try to figure out how the story lines might have converged. My major complaint comes with the magic system in the story line. I have a bias against systems that require expendable talismans, and in Ragnarök, the magical characters must use special magic cards along with emphatic incantations. I find this especially annoying during fights with magical swords, such as Chaos yelling, "Sword of destruction! Magnum break!!" in the middle of a battle with a giant face worm. These bother me because it seems the author has written the story hoping for possible merchandising or television opportunities rather than just providing an internally consistent magical system required by the storyline.
