BOOM! Studios bring you a graphic novel of Netflix prequel of Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal Age of Resistance in The Quest for the Dual Glaive.

Alright, so after reading through The Dark Crystal comics, however the movie and the Netflix adaptation which is similar to this comic because the art was too realistic to any other movie ever named Jim Henson himself doing puppets. But this is the first volume out of the first 4 issues of the comic. The story is written by Jefferey Addiss, Will Matthews, and Nicole Andelfinger and illustrated by Matias Basla and Esdras Cristobal. And as a fact, the art style of the comic is different because the first three chapters were drawn by Matias and Esdras did chapter four. However, this story delivers you back into a wonderful world such as The Dark Crystal which makes the series more expandable for the readers.

The front cover shows a similar art that relates to King Arthur and the sword in the stone movie, but this time, the position of the character on the background is holding straight up the dual swords that were pulled from the stone. The sword’s design is separate, but when it connects together you’d get the similarity of the sword which almost looked like the Ultima Weapon that Tidus has on Final Fantasy 10 which is all blue, but in the story, the swords are separate. However, that philosophy that came from Zuko from Avatar the Last Airbender mentioned that his dual broadswords are not separated because they’re just two different parts of the same whole. Even so, the sword has two handles which can be two same parts of the sword when they’re separated.

The story starts before the age of resistance, when the world is at peace, right until an Arathim attacked the Gelflings, but somehow the main character was having a duel on the other side of the village. The warrior of the Stone-in-the-Wood are trained to be the best, however, it’s not a matter of time when the soldiers would defend the village from the Arathim. Later, one of the soldiers survived and reported to Malldra Vala to warn her about the attack, however one of her advisors mentioned to her in a song about The Dual Glave, the same sword I’ve talked about from the front cover which is buried on the depths of the earth. It’s more likely a legend, however, one of the two Gelfings volunteer for the quest to retrieve the sword. The Gelflings traveled far away from home to a mysterious cave right underground, which is the Tomb of Relics where it has some hidden treasures. From every obstacle that they went through, they finally reached the Dual Glaive which is on the two swords in the stones. However, when the Gelflings got out of the cave they find the advisor and the other Gelflings running away from the Arathim. Even so when they fought against these insect monsters, the Dual Glaive literary made these monsters melt like sandpaper, but the sword actually sucked its life-force before turning the enemy into sandpaper. And then at the end of the story, the Gelflings threw away their weapons and used it to forge a crown which is a symbol of peace to the kingdom.

The story is kind of similar to the Red Wall, except the legendary soldier is more than a fairy tale, but this comic shows some philosophy for the warriors to protect their land and to annihilate their powerful enemy is to retrieve a sword in the stone. The Dual Glaive is more likely to have dual swords in the same pattern of design, and also has some special abilities to the sword. It gives with a lot of action and emotion between the characters, however, it seems more of a dramatic moment between the two lovers, but clearly enough that it seems to have their lives on the line cliché moment. At least those two Gelflings should have done a Dreamfast thing or something better than sex. The art between the first three chapters is very detailed to know that the artist drew a lot of amazing backgrounds and the creatures, like the giant land turtle. However the art in the fourth chapter seems to be a little cartoonish, but it shows a great depth of the story whatsoever. The action between the Gelfling and the Arathim is epic to see when the enemy is going to melt. The prequel of the age of resistance is actually to be told in separate stories because there’s more than this saga on the next issues of the Dark Crystal, but this one is great.

By Kevin Bermeo

I'm a New Yorker Artist, and I traveled a lot. I enjoy making comics, illustrations, paintings, and digital art. Besides drawing, I'm also a writer, I used to be a Gamer, and I love adventures, food, and dragons.