The Mice Templar #1

Published by Image Comics

Written by Bryan J. Glass

Art by Michael Avon Oeming

When you go home and your mother fixes your favorite dish;  you know the one that you tell everyone about,  the one that you have been trying to recreate, but just can’t get it right.  You know how when you walk into the house and the heavenly aroma hits your nose and you start to salivate.  That’s the way I feel about this book.  When I heard aboout it several monthes ago, I just started to get excited.  Those kinds of projects only come every once in a while.  The ones that make you giddy with anticipation.

Now that it is out.  All I can say is boy do Oeming and Glass deliver.  They have concocted a delectable stew of some favorites of my childhood.  Saute one cup of Star Wars, season it with some Conan and the Secret of NIMH, add a little julienned Watership Down, and steep in a King Arthur stock for several hours and Viola: Mice Templar.  In this first issue we are introduced to Karic, a young mouse, who has grown up hearing tales of the fabled Templar.  He suspects every stranger to be one,  he knows their myths and legends.  When he plays, it is as a Templar.  He lives in what appears to be a medieval village of Mice.  All is great.  Then the rats show up, the blood flows and the story hits the stratosphere.

Oeming’s pencils are breathtaking.  This is not the comic strip goodness of Powers.  This is a new gritty, dark style that is amazing.  Shadows abound and the mood of wonder and forboding that is conveyed in Glass’s script is perfectly conveyed.  Seemingly simple backgrounds jump off the page.  The energy that Glass and Oeming have towards this comic, over nine years in the making, is palatable on the page.

This is a a perfect comic.  It delivers in every way.  This reader was sold before it was printed.  Now, I am more stoked then before.  I want seconds now,  so I actually forsee myself rereading this book several times before the next issue hits the stands.  Spawn and the zombies need to get ready for some real competition, this is the next big thing from Image.

 rating 10 out of 10

review by Lee Newman