2 Notes
No Longer Taking the Backseat to Sherlock: A Review of Moriarty #1
Comic: Moriarty: The Dark Chamber #1
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: May 11, 2011
Price: $2.99
Rating: 3 out of 4 Garlics
I’ll admit it: I’m a Sherlock Holmes fan. I read the first editions of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novels on Holmes back in the day, so, when the chance presents itself to immerse myself into a world even remotely related to Holmes, I take it, which is why Moriarty: The Dark Chamber #1 waited for me today at my local comic book shop. Note, though, that this series is different from your run-of-the-mill Holmes crossover. Writer Daniel Corey wants to know what would happen to Professor James Moriarty if he no longer had Holmes to contend with.
In this debut issue, set twenty years after Holmes’s death, Moriarty has taken the name Trumbold and makes his living solving small-time mysteries, that is, until one Agent Smith offers him a handsome sum to find Holmes’s until now insignificant brother: Mycroft Holmes. When searching for Mycroft, Moriarty slips into a world of assassins and murder, a world that sends the blood pounding through his veins once again.
One rule many good writers follow is at work in Moriarty, which immediately drew me into the story. That rule is a villain isn’t a villain to himself. There’s reasoning behind the “madness,” and Moriarty is no exception. He lives by three rules, and these rules have managed to keep him alive in the shady underworld of England.
My only concern right now is the lettering of the inner dialogue boxes. Because of the splattering behind the letters, the words can be difficult to read. Anthony Diecidue, however, wields magic in every panel. The artwork is harsh, tough and completely fitting for a mystery that makes a literary villain the hero of his own story.
The first issue is usually reserved to establish characters, introduce the inciting incident that will carry the plot through the series and motivate the reader to buy issue two, an issue I’ve already requested.
For more info, visit www.professorjamesmoriarty.com or follow the writer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dangerkatt.
