Birthright Volume 9: War of the Worlds
The Birthright series, Book 9
Joshua Williamson, illustrations by Andrei Bressan and Adriano Lucas
Image Comics
Fiction, YA Fantasy/Graphic Novel
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Mickey Rhodes has come a very long way from the little boy abducted into the magical world of Terranos to fulfill a prophecy that turned out to be a lie. Now, he and his family - both the human family he left behind and his new wife and child from Terranos - are all that stand between two worlds and the total domination of King Lore. With Lore's monster army pouring through the portal to Earth, endgame has come: the final confrontation between Mickey and Lore, a test the boy-turned-warrior already failed once. But while he is facing the literal demons of his past, someone needs to seal the portal and separate the two worlds lest both collapse... a task that falls to Mickey's brother and his parents.
REVIEW: While it brings the war to a cataclysmic conclusion, this volume nearly lost a half-star for being stretched, repeating itself to draw out page count. Mickey finally finds out if he has it in him to be a hero after all the lies and betrayals and his own corruption, while the Rhodes family finds strength in unity even when they must go their own ways to save the world. It's the ultimate finale, though, on top of that stretching, that cost it the full fourth star, as it deliberately introduces a last-minute complication for the sake of probable sequels. Why? Something about it just felt tacked on. (I also still feel like the women got short-shafted in the overall story, particularly Mickey's mother.) Still, despite that - and despite the overall sense that this could've been a volume (or maybe two) shorter - Birthright remains a decent inversion of the portal world trope and a decent story overall.
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