Spera: Ascension of the Starless Vol. 2

Spera

by Josh Tierney, Jakub Rebelka (Illustrations)

More stories from the world of Spera with amazing artists coming together to illustrate amazing stories.

Vincent is a shipwrecked privateer who has lost his crew to winged monsters. Aya is an orphan seeking revenge on the Starless army who killed her family. Through a series of unlikely coincidences, the warrior cat Chobo unites the two and leads them to Princesses Pira and Lono – who are making their final preparations to leave Spera and do battle with the evil Starless Queen.

As the fire spirit Yonder infiltrates the Starless-occupied Plain Castle, the newly-formed group of Pira, Lono, Sala, Vincent, Aya and Chobo are taken by surprise by another swarm of winged monsters. Can Yonder survive his mission, and can the Princesses trust their new friends?

Ascension of the Starless Volume Two continues the tradition of bringing together artists from around the world to tell new stories of light and dark, angels and demons, and life and death.

Genres: Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Comics

176 pages, Hardcover

First published July 12, 2017

Reviews

[Justyn Rampa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spera is always a bit hard to follow due to its minimalist fragmented nature with a rotating door of artists with very different styles and I'm usually very down for that, but this one was a bit hard to follow. I feel like I'm not connecting with the Ascension of the Starless as much as the original Spera trilogy. I will likely give it a second read and see how it goes.

[Alex E · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmm... that was certainly a change.

So this volume does shift its focus quite a bit. Instead of a straightforward "zelda-esque" fantasy adventure story, this volume turns a bit surreal. It has weird angel creatures with houses for heads and hands for wings, it has different dimensions that are much closer to ours, it has much more magic, etc... This volume really went to another level with the fantasy stuff and tries to use it to further the story. Which, it seems that for this volume, the story takes a back seat to just indulge in goings on of Lono and Pira, and their new companions.

I didn't really care for this volume because it went far beyond what I liked the book for. I want to see monster hunting and adventuring. The "surrealness" just complicated and confused, instead of expanded on the story. I think Tierney moved away from what the core of the series is and the story took a hit because of that.

Also, the book usually is saved by the art when the story would lag or miss its mark. But this volume didnt have that usual flair of prior volumes. Dont get me wrong, there were some chapters that were gorgeous to look at. But prior volumes really had some amazing work, where this had some misses in my opinion. But of course, taste in art is subjective, so maybe you will like it more art-wise.

I hope the last volume gets us to a better place story wise. I'm eager to see how it all wraps up.

[Niche · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Ascension of the Starless arc has been a miss for me. I haven't really cared for the new characters or locations (It doesn't help that Sala the Witch gives me a creepy molester vibe which is an archetype I really don't care for). With two volumes in a row falling flat, I'll probably wait the next few out and check reviews to see if it improves. Hopefully, the new characters and setting get dropped and they get back to their original adventuring foursome.

[Petra · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first volume of the series was definitely the stronger one.
the art is immaculate, and I love the idea of different artists making different chapters - definitely adds spice. However, the story itself in this volume was hard to follow, many things don't add up or make sense or even relevance to the story for that matter, shame since the first volume was upbeat and interesting. It just seems as I keep reading volumes the story just doesn't progress.