Black Star #1: Smallville Star’s Comic Debut Is Off to a Slow But Intriguing Start (Early Review)

Earlier this year, comics fans were surprised when Titan Comics announced that Smallville star Kristin Kreuk was making the leap from screen to page, venturing back into the world of comics only this time as a writer with Black Star. The five-issue series sees Kreuk joined by actor Peter Mooney and screenwriter Eric Putzer to craft a tale set in the early 19th century fur trade that sends a man into an unexpected world when he discovers not only his magical abilities, but a secret order as well. Now, ahead of Black Star #1’s release in July, ComicBook has an early review of the new series debut and while the book is presented as something akin to horror meets magic, there’s also a good bit of mystery at play.

Without getting into spoilers, Black Star #1 doesn’t start exactly where you’d expect it to, but instead briefly sets the stage before taking us directly into the origin of Dashiell Carlyle and his discovery of his magical abilities. A traumatic incident (one that we’ve seen thanks to our exclusive early look at the issue) triggers Dashiell to activate and use his magical abilities for the first time. However, while we do get that origin and our first glimpses of magic and its cost in the world Kreuk, Mooney, and Putzer are creating and they’re tantalizing, the issue is a little slow moving and dense with information and narration that makes the gut punch at the end of the issue a lot less impactful than it could be.

Rating: 3 out of 5

PROS	CONS
Intriguing premise	Heavy narration makes the issue a little tedious
Almost crime comic feel at opening

Black Star #1 Is a Slow Start (But Suggests a Slow Burn Story to Come)

At the center of Black Star #1—and what leads to Dashiell’s magical activation—is his relationship. Because this is a spoiler-free review, we will not get into the details of that, but what is really the most important part of things is the circumstances around that relationship. In the world of Black Star, there are two warring factions in the fur trade in Canada and suffice it to say Dashiell and his loved one is on one side while the other launches a full-on attack. It’s what happens next that completely changes Dashiell’s entire life trajectory.

While this is a common enough setup for an adventure and even the anchor for a good story, Black Star is a little slow to take off. Our story has a narrator, with Dashiell telling us his story presumably from a point in the future, explaining how we get to where we are in the opening pages of the comic. However, some of that narration is overly cumbersome and it gets a little more cumbersome as the comic deepens and we get to actual dialogue between different characters. There are a few pages where two characters discuss the structure of human bodies and existence that feels a little too esoteric and reads as stilted. It is possible that that is in keeping with the nature and personality of the character who does most of the talking, but given the overall wordiness of the issue, it is a lot to take in and it slows down the book overall.

Offsetting that, however, is the art. Joe Bocardo provides the art in this issue and it’s both expansive and kinetic in a way that gives you a real sense for Black Star’s setting. You can genuinely feel the cold of the environment coming off the page and the last page of the issue is particularly striking with three panels that shift orientation in a way that at first feels simply like a very cool visual, but the longer you sit with it slowly becomes a metaphor for a genuine world shift all its own. Between the art and the almost too-heavy detail of the writing and narration in the issue, one gets the sense that Black Star is setting up for a story that may be a bit of a slow burn across its run but will ignite when you least expect it. There is a lot of potential here and this issue is definitely setting up its structure and it will be very interesting to see where the story goes.

Black Star #1 goes on sale July 29^th.

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