4 out of 5

I read a lot of comics. I sample a lot of modern comics. I am positive this will not be my last time saying this – which is a good thing – but I sample so much without following through to a full read (i.e. I am not encouraged to follow through) that I sometimes worry I’ve kind of, like, gotten old-man bitter and I’m missing out on great stuff because I’m nostalgia reading. There’s always that possibility, and certainly a good majority of stuff has been tainted with a same-soundyness that plays in to some second-screen style writing – a snake eating itself from page to movie / streaming screen and back to page – though more fairly, every era of comics has had its version of this, it’s just easier to sample a few pages of 30+ books every week if desired and see the trends in full force.

Anyhow. While I still find a lot of modern creator stuff that rings my bells, DC / Marvel titles – even if originals – less so. Cue the above worry: have I “grown out” of the Big Two? And thank goodness, someone like Tom Taylor will come around and drop a book that, surface level, does nothing especially new – okay, “Children of the Round Table” are a group of teens who have inherited the roles of King Arthur’s round table denizens – has plenty of quippy dialogue, and even features the Boom! / anime-influenced art that could be considered a youth book standard, buuuttt… It’s fantastic. It’s one of my favorite titles, standing up to an immediate reread, and while totally functioning on its own, has the exceedingly rare distinction (for me) of making me desperate for a follow up. Something something book by it’s cover, except, y’know, the cover of this one did get me on board: it was also nothing especially new, but I think the lack of pretense told me there was confidence in the pitch. Indeed, Taylor’s / the title’s willingness to not pretend like it was some dazzlingly wild pitch seemed to free up the creative team to add flair where it mattered. On the minimally critical flip-side of that, since we mostly zoom past any huge “origin” story (the kids become knights and are off and running book one), the six issues have to set up and resolve a threat – no ongoings are guaranteed nowadays! – while maintaining stakes, and with seven lead characters, some focus / buildup has to be shorted. But overall, the balance is handled incredibly well, making sure that slack is allowed in after the midway point but before the thrilling final issue.

And I don’t want to bury the actual effectiveness of Daniele Di Nicuolo’s art, bolstered by Rain Beredo’s colors. Di Nicuolo and Beredo sit easily in the clean, cinematic style of DC with the readable expressiveness (and high-octane energy stylization) of anime, but there’s so much personality within those general borders, and Di Nicuolo kills it at defining the characters without narrowing them down to some overt personality trait. Like, yes, you have the shy one, and the more uptight one, and so on, but these kids ultimately carry themselves like kids, which circles back around to how great Taylor is at working in legitimately funny quips with naturalistic dialogue, and then the duo together nailing the timing of it all. It’s the kind of read that goes down easy but isn’t forgettable or ephemeral: you absorb the words and the images easily, while willfully taking your time to work through it. 1000% key to this -letterer Wes Abbott. Marvel and DC do have kind of house lettering, but just like the above, Abbott has room to work in personality, and the “tone” of the bubbles is spot on for the book; it just reads right. The subtlety of colored outlines for certain characters’ bubbles was also a great touch – immediate recognizability / association without blocking the reading experience.

C.O.R.T.: seven youths witness a meteor-like item crash nearby, and investigation proves that their witnessing was not a coincidence: within the rock are seven items which contain the spirits of the Knights of the Round Table, each one aligning to a particular kid. And guess what? They now have a mission: there’s another weapon out there – and someone else aligned to it – that’s / who’s up to world-ending no good. Thankfully, some adults associated with the Round Table are nearby to put the kids through some training montages. Yeah, there’s probably a fun movie in there somewhere, but guess what?: there’s already a fantastic and fun comic book there, provided by Tom Taylor and Daniel Di Nicuolo.