Starhenge Book One : The Dragon and the Boar #3: Spoiler Free Review

Just how much did the stories get wrong about Merlin? Amber tells us all about it while recounting how he worked in the past to restore the magic that will save humans in the future.

Writer, Illustrator, Letter: Liam Sharp

Font: Dave Gibbons

Design: Liam Sharp

Logo: Liam Sharp and Christina McCormack

Covers: Liam Sharp

Publisher: Image Comics

Price: 3.99

Release Date: September 7th, 2022

A Time for Action

The first two issues of Starhenge Book One: The Dragon and the Boar deluged us with a staggering level of world building. The books were so dense that they all but required multiple readings to fully absorb. It was worth it, though, because Starhenge Book One #3 advances the story, offers a peek into Merlin’s mind, and reveals a new detail about Amber–all of which is made more compelling because we are already so grounded in this world.

Starhenge Book One #3 charts a different course than the first two issues. Amber continues to narrate, but the volume of narration is reduced by comparison. This lets Merlin to the fore with Sharp giving us the deepest look into the character yet. And it turns out that Merlin is quite a bit different than history has recorded (perhaps not surprising since he is a posthuman from centuries in the future). In this Sharp gets right something that reimaginings of old stories can often get wrong: not just changing the circumstances or the background but also changing who the characters are to fit the new world around them. And thanks to how far in the past Uther Pendragon (and by extension Merlin) lived, Sharp has considerable leeway to tweak some of the details with very minimal justification.

Through this focus on Merlin Starhenge Book One #3 also revisits the plot established in the first issue (restoring magic to the world for the war in the future) in a big way. Thanks to the detailed context the previous issue gave us about where and when Merlin is, Starhenge Book One #3 can advance the plot with minimal backstory. Sharp does provide a small amount of exposition to get the ball rolling, but attentive readers are rewarded with not having to sit through a serious recap. In that way Starhenge Book One #3’s narrative avoids the only criticism I applied to the previous issue: that the extensive exposition significantly slowed the pace of the story in the middle.

The thing that caught my attention more than anything else in Starhenge Book One #3, though, was a small detail about Amber that explains why she knows so much about Merlin’s activities in the past. Given the special knowledge Amber has exhibited to this point the revelation isn’t shocking. But it does present an interesting wrinkle to her previous contention that everything she’s describing (past, present, and future) “is all going on all at once.”

Future Meets Past

Almost all of Starhenge Book One #3 takes place in the past. But unlike the second issue where the art and color for the period was somewhat reserved (at least in comparison to the future), this issue is more visually chaotic and more visceral–somehow appropriate since Merlin’s story veers into the fantastic here. Most striking is the color palette. The cold, dark blue hues used to such great effect in the first issue’s future scenes make their first appearance in the past, primarily in scenes depicting Merlin or the center of magical power Merlin is having built. I don’t know if Sharp intended this or not, but the color choice felt like a conscious reminder of how far removed Merlin was (and in a sense still is) from this time and place.

While the past is getting somewhat wilder, though, the present retains its grayscale appearance. This choice has given Amber and Daryl’s scenes a sense of detachment, but on reading this issue’s final page when something much richer in color appears (a kind of visual explosion as a result of the contrast), I realized how that color choice had conveyed a sense of safety compared to the past and future–a sense of safety that’s no longer there.

Final Thoughts

Starhenge Book One #3 is the latest outstanding issue in a series that is among the most creative I have read in recent years. Sharp was not afraid to appeal to his readers’ intelligence in the first two issues. They relied on readers’ curiosity, willingness to fully engage with a new and detailed world, and patience for the story to lay its foundation. This issue begins to pay it off. It’s faster paced and not quite as dense while still commanding the same level of attention as what came before. The elegance of the book’s turn from exposition to plot advancement simply cannot be overstated.

Originally published at The Comic Book Dispatch.