So somehow I missed the fact that Warren Ellis had worked an old Marvel sword and sorcery property (originally created by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith in 1970) into Newuniversal. Starr the Slayer was the barbarian king of Zardath, whose adventures were dreamed about and then written by the character, Len Carson, a 20th century writer. Which explains one of the stylistic elements of this Newuniversal one-shot that had me confused.

The comic opens with printed text describing the scene in the first panel before warping into the panel itself. The book ends with the same effect, reversed, as though the story we are reading is a dream transcribed to prose. Nicely done, Mr. Spurrier. Nicely done.

Here, Starr the Slayer is also the barbarian king of Zardath, the Shining City, but he's marked with the Starbrand. Spurrier does a very good job of maintaining stylistic elements from Ellis' work, while creating a book that is like nothing else on the stands. The combination of science fiction trappings with the sword and sorcery characters and setting brings to mind elements of Michael Moorcock and Karl Edward Wagner and is a very refreshing spin on the typical barbarian story.

All of the expected recipients of the White Event's marks are here, and most of them have faint resemblance to the current incarnations. Starr is not the sharpest tool in the shed, just like his counterpart, Ken Connell. John Tensen's insane murdering machine, Justice, is echoed in the almost mindless monstrosity Ukru. Baneth finds herself creating machines whose purposes are incomprehensible and frightening in a way similar to Dr. Jennifer Swann's Project Spitfire.

The last character, Trull, a sorcerer marked with the Nightmask and able to commune with the Emissary in the Superflow (if these terms mean nothing to you, then you need to pick up the Newuniversal trade and the new series, Newuniversal: Shockfront), just like Izanami Randall in the current version, has a significant difference. He doesn't listen to the Emissary and has motivations and designs of his own. It makes me wonder if there's a turn like this in store for Izanami.

This is another solid performance by Simon Spurrier that really makes me look forward to his Danny Ketch: Ghost Rider mini-series that hits in October. He is able to thematically tie this story in to the second wave of Newuniversal, and deal with the spread of super-humanity in a way that is both believable given the settings, and disturbingly brutal with a barbaric variation on Project Spitfire.

And the art... oh my! The only time I've seen Eric Nguyen's art was when he did a few pages of the Hulk vs. Hercules one-shot a few months ago, and back then I said I'd wished he had done the whole book. Well, here's an entire book by Nguyen, and it's just as gorgeous as I knew it could be. But it's not perfect. There are times when Nguyen's inking is too heavy-handed for the figures, causing some characters in some panels to appear over-simplified. Some of the heavy shadow is extremely effective, on the other hand, especially when used to hint at the grotesqueries that are the monsters who appear in the story.

But when he inks with a lighter touch, there is a wonderful level of detail and finesse. This is most noticeable in the design of the Shining City itself and the machinery that Baneth creates.

Rouch's colors are a bit subdued throughout the book, but his use of lighting effects leap off the page. Combined with Nguyen's art, the two create a look that is rough-edged but painterly. It's dark and effective. I like.

So this is a worthy entry in the newuniversal world, and I'm going to repeat myself from earlier in the week and say that Simon Spurrier is a name to watch. He's brought a very 2000 A.D. feel to his American comics so far, and I can't wait to see what else he can bring to the table.

By the way, the cover of this book spells "Conqueror" with an "er" instead of "or," but the copyright info at the bottom of the first page spells it with the "or." Is that a conflict between American and British spellings, or is it just a mistake? Merriam-Webster seems to indicate that it's a spelling error. On the cover. And all the solicitations. Sigh.

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