The 7th Sword #4 Review

Utterly predictable. That’s the only way to summaries 7th Sword #4 and the two words couldn’t be more apt. There is no effort or attempt at originality in this issue and the title was already wearing thin on creativity to begin with.

The official description from IDW:

As the students finish their training, Kathleen must develop a plan to take on the Warlord Kavanaugh and his army, but will she put her faith in a dangerous killing machine they’ve discovered or in the reluctant warrior, Daniel Cray and his deadly Malathane sword.

So, we already had a lone warrior forced to train people in need of saving. In this issue, our lone hero (I’d call him Cray but it really doesn’t matter) trains his team of warriors, a few plot mcguffins ensure he’s their only hope and naturally, he leaves. It’s that gap in any similar film where the hero has yet to do ‘what is right’ and come to everyone’s rescue but, at the same time, it’s the point where the audience is meant to lose all hope. Anyone buying this?

In other words, Daniel Cray is a poor man’s Han Solo. This is a shame, because John Raffo has gone into some background detail for this world. The dialogue teases hints of a back-story or fleshed out world. Heck, we have giant sand barges (mind you, so did Star Wars) and a crazy-cyborg-spider-woman. Is this stuff used? Nope, it’s merely used to provide background detail, when the emphasis should really be the other way around.

Visually, there’s no knocking John Raffo’s artistic style. Is lines are solid and, as I’ve already mentioned, he puts a lot of design work into his worlds and this comes across the most visually. However, no amount of artwork is going to save such a bland, unoriginal story.

In short, there’s some good artwork, terrible writing and a storyline that will impress or inspire nobody. Very disappointing. Given the pattern set so far, I don’t expect much from the next issue either.