Comic Book Review - Dark Tower: The long Road Home #5

This is the final issue of the 5 part mini series, so I won’t reveal too much of the plot, so I don’t spoil anything. Actually, not much really happens in the issue. Roland confronts the Crimson King, and is saved by Sheemie, then the Ka-Tet return to Gilead.

I am a massive fan of the Dark Tower books. I have been reading the series since I was about 15 years old. I have also read every book that ties into the series, in both major, and minor ways. To say I am a fan is an understatement.

This mini series has explored a couple of story threads that were previously only hinted at, in Wizard & Glass, to that end it has been pretty good. One problem I have with Peter David’s storytelling here is way that the tale is told by an unseen narrator. The style in which the narrator tells the tale grates on me a little bit. I imagine the tale being told by an old man sitting on his porch drinking moonshine, with a piece of straw in his mouth. He uses phases like “I reckon’” and “Ain’t never gonna happen”. That is my only real problem with it, as all the characters talk exactly like they do in the books, and use the proper terminology for things.

The artwork by Jae Lee is absolutely beautiful. However, it is a bit of a shame that every single scene, no matter whether is happy, sad, romantic, thrilling, fearful… looks like a scene from a Gothic horror tale. I know Stephen King writes a lot of horror stories, but the Dark Tower books were never about that, they were an epic fantasy tale. His artwork is appropriately dark the scenes with the Crimson King; however, the style is exactly the same in the scene when the Ka-Tet return Home. Gilead is supposed to be a place full of light and wonder, the last bastion of decency in Mid-World. Here though, the place looks like the ruins of a haunted castle.

The back-ups by Robin Furth, are wonderful fan material, and are worth the $2.99 on there own. Also note, this stuff does not make it into the trade collections.

Grade: 7 out of 10

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