The Path: Crisis of Faith

by Ron Marz, Bart Sears

On a world racked by war, only one small island nation stands unconquered. The Warlord Todosi leads his troops to victory in a great and perhaps final battle, only to be betrayed by the gods. His brother, a monk, vows vengeance before assuming Todosi s station as the new Warlord of Nayado. He must become a leader of armies, defending a land whose traditions he is coming to distrust. The Path is a new take on the samurai tale, a staple of Japanese entertainment with a growing audience here in the West. In addition to all the action and dynamic artwork that typifies the genre, we have the struggle of one man walking the thin line between honor and duty. Set on an exotic world akin to feudal Japan, The Path tells the story of a man stripped of his faith in not only the gods to whom he prays, but the emperor he is honor-bound to serve. Filled with samurai action and panorama, The Path tells the story of one man's journey and an entire nation's fate. When the monk Obo-san witnesses the death of his brother at the hands of the gods, he swears to have his vengeance by using the gods` own Weapon of Heaven against them. Meanwhile, the emperor teeters on the brink of madness and threatens to lead the nation to ruin. Torn between duty and destiny, Obo-san defies the Emperor and finds himself a wanted man, and not even the all-powerful weapon he possesses can save him. Aficionados of the masterful Lone Wolf and Cub series and the samurai epics of Akira Kurosawa will want to walk The Path.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fantasy, Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published October 16, 2002

About the author

Marz is well known for his work on Silver Surfer and Green Lantern, as well as the Marvel vs DC crossover and Batman/Aliens. He also worked on the CrossGen Comics series Scion, Mystic, Sojourn, and The Path. At Dark Horse Comics he created Samurai: Heaven and Earth and various Star Wars comics. He has also done work for Devil’s Due Publishing’s Aftermath line, namely Blade of Kumori. In 1995, he had a brief run on XO-Manowar, for Valiant Comics.

Marz’s more recent works includes a number of Top Cow books including Witchblade and a Cyberforce relaunch. For DC Comics, he has written Ion, a 12 part comic book miniseries that followed the Kyle Rayner character after the One Year Later event, and Tales of the Sinistro Corps Presents: Parallax and Tales of the Sinestro Corps Presents: Ion, two one-shot tie-ins to the Green Lantern crossover, The Sinestro Corps War.

His current creator owned projects include “Dragon Prince” (Top Cow) and “Samurai : Heaven and Earth” (Dark Horse).

Photo by Luigi Novi.

Reviews

[Nicolo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main reason I paid too much for a used copy of this graphic novel was for the Walt Simonson illustrated fifth chapter. I'm a huge admirer of Simonson's comicbook work and I have not read this issue and still remains on my back issue hunting list.

The Bart Sears art on the rest of the book was a pleasant surprise. His style has come a long way since the 90's heyday of comicbooks. His new approach emphasized storytelling over detailing but his figure work is still superb. It's really a nice change; almost made this purchase worth it.

The art does suffer from the computer coloring. It's too muddied that this reader could barely follow the action. Too many blacks in my opinion and not enough Frank Miller skill.

The story, in the writer's own words, "smells like Japan but isn't really samurai japan". Indeed, but it is close enough to scratch the reader's itch for stories set in this period of world history.

[Al Berry · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s just okay, other than the one issue that Walt Simonsen guests on (which is fantastic) the art is mostly subpar, far too dark with lots of blacks and dark oranges.

The story has an interesting premise but is rather too rushed and not flushed out, it’s not Ron Marz best work and you can tell it’s wrapped up far too quickly due to the impending end of Crossgen, a noble experiment that doesn’t stick the landing.

Highlights are of course the two issue crossover with the Way of the Rat main characters.

[Fizzgig76 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reprints The Path Prequel and #1-6. Obo-san finds his faith in question after the gods kill his brother and his master seeks the weapon the gods left behind. The Path had an interesting premise and promising art. The story was heavily tied to The First in the Crossgen universe and like all Crossgen titles, The Path never had a chance to truly conclude its "path'.

[Daryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm gonna start with the art on this one, for a reason. Unlike Bart Sears' superhero work, this wasn't the highly detailed, muscular art I'm sued to seeing from him. It's dark, quite literally, to the point of not being able to tell what's what at times. Lots of small, inset panels don't help contribute to the overall flow of the storytelling. My biggest issue (no pun intended) here is that throughout this graphic novel, the two-page spread is used, rather than the more traditional single page. In the individual comics, this might have been very effective. In this trade paperback collection, the binding makes it rather difficult to read across the page(s), and doesn't help the (problems with the) art either.

The story was a bit confusing as well. The setting is apparently ancient feudal Japan, but with the CrossGen sigil being present, and the created names of the countries, it's probably a different world that parallels our own. The main character, Obo-san, is a man of faith whose faith is challenged by the revelation that his gods are capricious and not all that good. A fair amount of magic and mysticism resides along with the swordsmanship. Obviously the start of what should have been a longer story, the implosion of Crossgen Comics cut this story short. As a single graphic novel, the story doesn't really do much.

[Kay Mcgriff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This graphic novel is much darker than the above one by the same writer. Set it the land of the samauri warriors, it involves war, betrayal, and the loss of faith. Todosi dedicated his life to the arts of war while his brother Obo San dedicated his life to serving the gods. After the gods take Todosi's life, Obo San vows to use their own weapon against them for revenge. But first he must survive the wrath of his emperor and the demons of an invading army. My favorite part of this graphic novel is the interview with the penciler, Bart Sears, in the back. After reading it, I understood much more what he accomplished with the two page spread layout, the dark images, and his penciling technique.

[Serge Pierro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being a fan of the Samurai genre, this Graphic Novel was a welcome addition to my collection. Although the story is okay, it is clearly the dark artwork of Bart Sears that steals the show. Excellent renditions of Samurai and monks are included. Special kudos would have to go to Inker Mark Pennington whose moody blacks enhance the feel of the story. It could be argued that Michael Atiyeh's coloring is a bit too dark at times, but it does add to the overall feel. Walt Simonson does the artwork for one of the chapters.

[Tiffany Lynn Kramer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Path has an intriguing story with a lot of room for growth had it continued past this installment. I liked the art style at the beginning and Wulf's flash back towards the end is great however as the story went on the panels became to busy and dark in color tone making it a little hard to follow what was happening at times.

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the artwork. Loved. Wow. Loved. Read the first issue of this when it initially came out. Glad to read the rest. Bart Sears completely set the mood with the art and Ron Marz delivered on the story! This is a quality comic book. I'm glad to read it all at once though as trying to read this comic book issue by issue.

[Alan Hoffman]

Great illustration and good concept, but story-wise it was sort of hard to follow for me.