3 out of 5

Emmons has proved, across multiple shorts and graphic novels, that he can stuff a complex narrative into a few pages, or handle it across a larger scale. However, there’s very often an element of the surreal that’s working with him, helping his dialogue and storytelling have an air of intrigue or mystique that might not be there in a “straight” story.

Crusader is dense, and there’s still a bit of the ol’ strangeness to it, but there’s perhaps something about it being a standard comic, done with an actual publisher, that’s encouraged some more linearity: within, a nameless templar knight travels to another world of unkillable goblins and evil gods, but it’s otherwise a pretty straight-forward swords and blood fantasy tale, quirky sidekick included. And there’s maybe something about that that doesn’t balance with Emmons habits as a storyteller: instead of feeling complex, it reads a bit top-heavy; instead of mystique, perhaps a bit confusing. But these criticisms are not all-consuming, nor do they feel far away from a fix: I suspect one or two issues of extra room for pacing could’ve smoothed this all out.

Given that, though, this was still a book I very much looked forward to each month, eagerly flipping through the issues and anxious for when the series would be complete so I could absorb it in one full go, as is my wont. All the weirdness and cool character designs and I love of Matt’s work are here, and I do think that future reads will make what felt bumpy less-so; this just wasn’t as enigmatic on first approach as Matt’s other works have been for me. But again, to be clear – the book was significantly dug. I dug the evil, evil bad guy, and the creepy evil bad guy behind them; I dug the weird goblin sidekick character; and – mostly importantly – I dug how Matt shifted our kills-for-god crusader into a differently-driven hero – one whom we’re kind of rooting for the whole time, but who has a well conceived crisis of faith during the narrative. If the supporting elements to this arc had more room, as suggested, I think the entirety of the tale would’ve been very, very, solid.

Artwise, Emmons’ thick inking, character design, and cinematic framing make each book worthy of pausing and perusing. There were definitely scenes I went back over and over, appreciative of where Matt chose to add detail, or to give focus. I found the color a bit distracting at points – the choices here in terms of when to drop black lines for color seemed off, especially when scenes got more frantic, and Emmons’ thick linework in general made some poses / scenes look “blocky” – but as a one-person production (with lettering from Andriy Lukin), it’s an impressive feat.

If Matt continued this narrative, I’d love to see how my quips above would undoubtedly be addressed. If not, I’m sure we’ll be seeing more monthly attempts like this from Emmons, and I’m confident that, similarly, everything from here on out will only improve on an already impressive base.