Before there was King Arthur, Camelot, and the Knights of the Round Table, there was Merlin. In the year 410 A.D., a divided and decaying Rome calls back the last of her occupying forces from the island of Britain. With the Roman legions gone, British warlords and foreign invaders alike begin to battle for control of the small isle. In the region known today as Wales, one warlord at last gains enough prominence to take the title “King”. His name is Vortigern. It is the tenth year of his reign, 435 A.D., and that is where our story begins…Collects the entire Merlin comic book series issues 1-6.
This comic is about Merlin's life as grandson of Vortigern (from Vortigern's daughter, violated by a demon). It starts with Vortigern's story, his conquest, his love for his daughter, and then Merlin's birth and how Merlin found out he has powers and joins the druids.
I am not a fan of this comic... nothing really happens. It is quite slow and boring, and that could easily be because I am not a fan of Merlin. Still, I enjoyed reading something where Vortigern is not the bad guy.
The art is... pretty bad. Not the quality, just the choices. Every woman is objectified... ah yes, let's draw the boobs of that elderly woman, it's such an important physical trait and they have to be well shown!! So needless. Also, every single woman had the same dress, well exposing her boobs, after all the role of female characters in this comic are mother or lover/sex.
Part volume 4, when Merlin leaves court, basically, the story gets a bit better, Merlin meets the Lady of the lake and re-finds himself after a loss, before returning to a kingdom with Aurelius on the throne. Still bad, but better.
*really a 3.5* An interesting take on the origins of Merlin and of the line of Arthur. The art was decent, though it was hard at times to tell the women apart. Good enough that I will give the second volume a try.