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Friday, April 8, 2016

REVIEW: Spirit’s Destiny #1

Writer: Dorphise Jean
Pencilers: Zack Dolan, Edwin Galmon, Saint Yak, Richard Perotta
Review: Will Dubbeld

Writer/creator Dorphise Jean contacted me some time ago about a review for her indie book, Spirit’s Destiny, and I readily agreed. Always willing to lend a hand to the small press, I was pleased to recently receive a digital copy in my mailbox, and off we went. I hadn’t done any background research into the book and was therefore able to approach it with a fresh mind.
Was it a superhero book? A horror book? I plunged in and soon discovered it may be neither, or a little bit of both.

Spirit’s Destiny opens with teenage heroine, Destiny, awaking from a nightmare, or perhaps vision, depicting a costumed ne’er do well creeping into his infant daughter’s room.  He gets into a fracas with the child’s mother, but not before injecting the baby with some strange fluid.  I love that the book cold opened with a very well choreographed fight scene/dream sequence before snapping us into Destiny’s regular, everyday routine.

The book’s second act shows us a bit of teenage Destiny’s archetypical school life (best friend, hot guy, bitchy rival girl) and some interaction with her mother, who grounds her for treating Bitchy Girl to a right cross.
I didn’t see that coming, and it pinned down Destiny’s character in one panel. Well done.

The book closes with Destiny and her friends sneaking out (as teenagers are wont to do) and fiddling about in a science lab.
Again, as teenagers are wont to do.
The book closes with Destiny receiving a zap of energy from one of the lab’s devices and laying out cold as her friends run for aid.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed in the hopes she gets some superpowers out of this otherwise bum deal.

All in all I rather enjoyed Spirit’s Destiny.  There are a few editorial missteps and some small dialogue issues but the scripting and most of the dialogue reminded me of some grandiose book of yesteryear, namely the bombastic comics of the 1960s and perhaps even some nuances of 40s Golden Age books. The comic is a super-quick read, although this is mainly due to the grand layout of the book.  It’s composed largely of big, meaty, colorful panels and splashes giving the lion’s share of the comic to the art department.  The art is reminiscent a bit of the aforementioned comics of former times, as are the colors, although a bit muted in contrast to some of the more vibrant books about superfolks.

But again, we probably aren’t catering to the tights and capes crowd.

I’m eager to see where Spirit’s Destiny goes.  There’s some room for growth and improvement, but I very much look forward to future installments.  Issue 1 opened a lot of doors to the reader but didn’t let you walk all the way into the room.  I can see where things might be going, but I want to step in and find out for sure.
Spirit’s Destiny is available digitally and as a floppy from www.spiritsdestinycomics.com
Go getcha some.

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