Jim Zub’s Pathfinder comic series returns with an all-new tale set in Magnamar, the City of Secrets. This new story sees our adventuring party of Ezren, Merisiel, Kyra, Harsk, Seoni, and Valeros exploring a new city, meeting new allies, and discovering a new threat. This issue is a great follow up to the previous story arc that saw the heroes fighting goblins, demons, and a dragon and really feels like they have moved up to a bigger city and on to a new “level” of danger.
This issue takes some time to reintroduce the characters and explore their growing and changing relationships with each other, as well as establish the new setting and introduce some new, important characters that will no doubt have a big effect on this story. The real joy of this book is the relationships between our 6 heroes. Whether it is Kyra and Merisiel’s growing romance or the mutual respect growing between team hothead Valeros and leader Seoni, Zub does a wonderful job making the characters feel real and making sure the audience cares for them. For characters, who started as nothing more than drawings in a source book, he has done a wonderful job fleshing them out and giving them memorable personalities.
The art by Leandro Olivera is clean and expressive with nice, detailed backgrounds that make the city of Magnamar feel like a real, lived-in place. He does a great job capturing the quiet moments in the script and giving the characters very expressive faces that really add to the character beats throughout the story. Take the time to notice the subtle moments like a bored Seoni twisting her hair around her finger or Merisiel’s gleeful smile at arriving in a new city where she can get into trouble . . . I mean explore.
Pathfinder: City of Secrets is a great first issue, re-introducing characters while setting up new conflicts and concerns. Whether you are a long-time fan or a newcomer, this will be a fun read and should hook you in to see where this story goes next. I really thought Dynamite knocked it out of the park with Jim Zub’s first Pathfinder story, but this one proves to be even more promising, and I can’t wait to see where they take it. This is one series you will not want to miss.
5 Tankards of Ale out of 5
