Happily perusing through the wad of Crossgen Edge compedia I purchased quite some time ago, I stumbled across an excellent comic book series running under the title of Scion, principally written by long time comic-book scribe Ron Marz, pencilled by Jimmy Cheung and inked by Don Hillsman II. The series was published by Crossgen Comics and ran from July 2000 to April 2004, churning out 43 issues in total. Businessman Mark Alessi and Gina M. Villa are credited as its creators.
The story of Scion revolves around young prince Ethan, prince of the Heron Dynasty and the man directly responsible for the war that now rages between the Raven and Heron nations, thanks to his accidental injuring of the Raven prince Bron during a standard initiation ceremony. Of course, this was only the spark to ignite the latest round of battles between these two nations, both of which have been at war with one another for hundreds of years already.
A chance encounter with Princess Ashleigh of the Raven Dynasty forces Ethan to re-evaluate his life, particularly after the appearance of the powerful, enigmatic sigil that gets burnt upon his chest, granting him amazing powers and abilities, and in one stroke making him one of the most powerful players on the battlefield. Ashleigh however has an agenda of her own, that being the freedom of the enslaved lesser races, beings who have been genetically modified in order to better serve their human masters. Drawn into her ragged group and traveling with companions that include the diminutive Skink and the powerful bounty hunter Exeter, Ethan finds himself fighting for a new cause and defending his new loyalties against old friend and foe alike.
But all the time Bron is still waiting for his revenge – and now that he too has been granted a mysterious power for a secretive benefactor, this obsession may just become a realisation after all!
As I mentioned earlier, the extremely capable Ron Marz handles the scripting duties on this title and he churns out a wonderfully engaging story about a man growing up and seizing control of his own life, all painted on the beautifully etched out tapestry of epic war, drama and raging dynasties. Ron manages to paint an intricate and cleverly interleaved political landscape and fills it with characters that grow and manage to engage with the reader over the course of the story, and indeed, manages to paint a very realistic picture of the type of landscape one might have found say during the Middle Ages. One can’t help but liking Ethan and his band of fellow warriors and you soon find yourself hanging on the edge of each and every encounter that they undergo.
Jimmy Cheung, Marvel’s current hot superstar penciller, handles the pencilling duties for most of the series’ run and his strong, epic pencils match the sword and sorcery theme to absolute perfection, crafting some hauntingly beautiful visuals and powerful action sequences. Every now and then his character models do sport a perception flaw or two, but over the whole his fresh and detailed artwork is simply breathtaking to behold. In addition to Jimmy’s stunning pencils, Don Hillsman II proves once again that he is a master with the inks, adding extra depth and textures with exquisite ease to Chueng’s visuals. And lest we not forget, the amazing colorist team, that were behind the awesome looking colors that set all the CrossGen titles so much apart from their competitors’ releases for that time period, continue to do an absolutely stellar job in boosting the overall look and tone of an already awesome looking book.
So in summary, if you can get your hands on Scion and love an epic, sword-driven fantasy tale, then you certainly can do no wrong by picking this quite frankly awesome offering up and giving it a good read. Highly, highly recommended.
Related link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scion_(comics)