A Game of Thrones #14 Review


I‘ll give A Game of Thrones one thing: it’s consistent, steadily plowing through scene after scene with only the barest concessions made to the fact that it’s a comic book. George R.R. Martin‘s series of novels is very long (with still more to come) and, as the title of the first book (and of the comic series, and of the HBO series) suggests, the focus is as often on political maneuvering as it is on swords and battles. Political maneuvering means a lot of conversations, and a lot of conversations means a lot of words. Heck, even Dynamite’s description of the issue is long:

Daniel Abraham’s riveting adaptation of the fantasy masterwork by George R. R. Martin continues. When three lords owing allegiance to Riverrun come to King’s Landing to complain of Ser Gregor Clegane, it falls to Eddard Stark, in the absence of the king, to pass judgment. He declares the brutish Clegane, a bannerman of House Lannister, guilty of treason and dispatches men to bring him to justice. Knowing that this will increase the enmity of the powerful Lannisters, Eddard decides that he must send his daughters, Sansa and Arya, home to Winterfell. Meanwhile, another Lannister, Tyrion-the Imp-gains savage new allies in his quest for vengeance against Lady Stark. And Eddard, enlightened by the unwitting Arya, moves against Cersei Lannister . . . yet acts with a mercy he may come to regret.

Daniel Abraham continues to copy and paste huge portions of Martin’s text into the dialogue and narration of the series. It’s a square peg/round hole mentality that robs the story of much of it’s life and drama. He does alter on of the series best lines to suit the medium, at least, ending the issue with a good beat.

Tommy Patterson seems tobe leaning more and more toward realism in his art as the series progresses. While it’s not a necessary change, it’s not unwelcome either. His backgrounds are so detailed, though, that they threaten to overwhelm the characters. The overabundance of text in this issue definitely works against him. The complete lack of action (unless you count Arya throwing an orange at her sister) means he’s reduced to drawing talking heads, and too often his work is covered up by speech bubbles and text boxes.

While A Game of Thrones #14 struggles with the same problems that have plagued the series as a whole, it does at least manage to avoid any glaring problems in the process of adaptation.

3/5

S#!T Talking Central