Gene reviewed The oath of the five lords by Yves Sente
An interesting murder-mystery with plenty of action and gorgeous art
4 stars
This was my first time reading a Blake & Mortimer comic book. I was quite surprised at how mature it is despite having really gorgeous art of a style reminiscent of Tintin.
The story revolves around a promise that 5 lords made in the past that comes back to kill them one by one as someone seeks revenge. Blake is personally involved in this story despite not being actively followed from the beginning of the book. The murderer(s) are in fact seen frequently, but the authors throw enough red herrings to keep the plot interesting and provide some unexpected twists along the way. Some parts of the plot could have benefited from more development however, as it is quite difficult to believe the motivations of the murderer(s), willingly acting as proxies for the revenge of someone they never knew.
One drawback is that Blake who is quite central to the …
This was my first time reading a Blake & Mortimer comic book. I was quite surprised at how mature it is despite having really gorgeous art of a style reminiscent of Tintin.
The story revolves around a promise that 5 lords made in the past that comes back to kill them one by one as someone seeks revenge. Blake is personally involved in this story despite not being actively followed from the beginning of the book. The murderer(s) are in fact seen frequently, but the authors throw enough red herrings to keep the plot interesting and provide some unexpected twists along the way. Some parts of the plot could have benefited from more development however, as it is quite difficult to believe the motivations of the murderer(s), willingly acting as proxies for the revenge of someone they never knew.
One drawback is that Blake who is quite central to the plot is not a very fleshed out character. His past is explored but he is retains a blandness to his personality, probably so readers can keep identifying with him as one of the titular characters. It may have been a smarter choice to focus the entire plot onto Mortimer so Blake could benefit from more development through the eyes of his friend and have more flaws in his character. He may have been a suspect that way for example.
I was surprised to see that there are some pretty wordy passages where the drawings are basically just someone sitting down and speaking out a wall of text. That was a little off-putting and may lose the interest of younger readers.
Overall, I found this comic very enjoyable and well made. It was very engaging and became difficult to put down once it had me engaged in its whodunit plot.