Publisher: Image Comics
Writer: Antony Johnston
Artist: Christopher Mitten
Release Date: 13th November 2013

Reviewing comics is a great way to read stuff you wouldn’t normally pick up, and ‘Umbral’ piqued my interest because ‘Dark Fantasy’ as a genre sounds really cool, but in practice it can go either way.

On the surface, ‘Umbral’ looks like fun, but despite being a decent read, it doesn’t really deliver any thrills or do anything original. Antony Johnston’s characters are likeable and his dialogue is snappy, helping to drive things along and set up the story, but the basis for said story is overly familiar, and although Johnston may well have something up his sleeve to keep things interesting, this first issue still feels a little flat.

Christopher Mitten’s artwork does its job just fine, and some of his bigger panels look great, but the limited colour palate lets ‘Umbral’ down just when things should get interesting. This book has a LOT of purple in its pages, and quickly becomes boring to look at, which is a shame, as Mitten has some good stuff going on here.

As a dark fantasy comic, this isn’t bad, but it’s a familiar start to a familiar story. It may throw in a few surprises in future issues, but ‘Umbral’ may struggle to shine among Image’s big-hitters.

Rating: 6/10.

The writer of this piece was: Alan Shields (aka Al)
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