I have no idea why I picked this book up. The attractive cover? Maybe. The desire to read something a little different? More likely. One things for sure, I’m glad I chose to read this. Having not read the first two issues I was afraid of having no frame of reference (yeah I just quoted The Big Lebowski, boo ya!) but thanks to the terrific writing, it didn’t matter. Enough backstory was given that I still felt the lead characters plight and intrigued enough by their story.

 

Birth Right is a hard book to review. There are no spoilers to be wary of but it really is a case of not over explaining the plot here and taking away the enjoyment of actually reading the book. We start with a terrific action scene that introduces our main character, Mikey. A Viking looking character wielding magic. I know, awesome already. We are then given the twist to the story when is younger brother Brennan is introduced. We than learn of Mikey’s “mission”, to battle war criminals not from this Earth. We are also introduced to the parents as the book cuts away to a different time where we learn that Mikey had actually gone missing as a child, trained in the ways of Magic whilst his father is accused of his murder. A year passes in our time, many years in Mikey’s time. Now he is back to complete his mission. So we have two stories now, current day Viking Mage attempting to fight evil and the back story on how he got there. I’m totally down for both stories.

 

The art is a great blend of fantasy and real world. You immediately get the feeling of being on two different planes of existence which further serves the story. The action scene in the first few pages is detailed without being over loaded and confusing and the snow scene in the middle of the book is equally entertaining with some great character modeling.

If you are looking for a different, entertaining fantasy story, don’t go past this book. I have a feeling it may even be suited to those wishing to try comics out as a medium which is always a great thing.

 

Birth Right #3 gets 4 sword wielding wombats out of 5