Mice Templar, IV #10: Review

God, it’s so easy to love a reluctant hero and with issue #10 of Mice Templar IV we get our next big dose of Karic — a hero so hesitant (but promising) that both mice and readers have pinned our hopes on him. And so far, he’s delivering.

Here’s the official word from Image:

“LIKE A TORCH TO THE KINDLING” Pilot the Tall invokes Death Magic to discover the truth behind Karic’s destiny and what he discovers promises doom to all who follow the noble young mouse. Meanwhile, Karic and Cassius return to the Field of Ruin— Avalon, where the Templar fell—and must prove their loyalty to the assembled remnant, as well as their identity to ravenous cats seeking his legend.

Like any good mega-series, each recent issue of Mice Templar has kept ratcheting up the tension in all the right ways. After the destruction of The Great Ash Tree, which batshit King Icarus thought would propel him into unquestioned power, we’ve seen his grip on the kingdom weaken as mice have begun bucking against his reign. This spirit of revolt has been strengthened, of course, by Karic, a Christ-like mouse who’s survived some epic tests and delivers crazy lines like this when other mice try to join his crusade: “I’ve no crusade, nor cause…other than that which is best for all mice.” And because writer Bryan J.L. Glass is, well, Bryan J.L. Glass, the joy of issue #10 (and the Karic arc writ large) is that reads like literature, with themes of sacrifice, magic, faith and revolution. In short, Mice Templar rocks and is elevating the comic genre as a whole. Best yet, issue #10 ends with one of the most kick-ass alliances in recent memory.

Victor Santos provides the art for issue #10 and does so beautifully, again. The mood of issue #10, like several of the previous installments, is dark and bloody and Santos seems to have a special knack for delivering this sort of intensity to the page.

Mice Templar is one of the best books out there. ‘Nuff said. Go grab this thing today.