Starring
John Barrowman
Written
by John Barrowman, Carole E Barrowman and Erika Lewis.
Art
by Beni Lobel
Concept
and Character designs by Tommy Lee Edwards
Music
by Matthew Brind
Legendary
Comics
Cover
Images Kind permission from Beni Lobel and Legendary Comics (Thank you)
Every time I hear Acursian
I keep thinking of Gwen Cooper shouting 'Code 3 Incursion' during the Torchwood
episode – Cyberwoman.
The
story thus far…
Chapter One
The intro music eases you
into the chapter with what feels like a Torchwood episode. It does have a Torchwood feel to it, I have
to admit, not helping any by the fact that the artwork for Barrowman lends a striking
resemblance to Captain Jack Harkness; in civvies!
Birds swoop manically in
the sky above a busy city. A bird of prey, a raven and what could either be an
egret or a stork fly together plotting the death of the main character while
other birds circle behind them as back up. The birds descend and transform into
beautiful women in various guises. They each have a mission - to find their
talismans, but time is heavily against them, and the risk to their own world
and that of this one, are fragile to say the least.
John Barrowman plays
Charlie Stewart, a man of wealth as an attorney at law, with a beautiful family.
He wants for nothing. Everything is at his fingertips. And goddamnit the
illustrations of Barrowman's naked character cause you to linger perhaps a
little too long on them and not on the story.
Chicago: The Night Before Charlie's Birthday
As with any story, you
need a reason for why Charlie Stewart is the target for all the bad things that
can happen to a good-looking rich boy. Enter left, the old guy in the long
coat, entering the castle. He looks as old as his clothes, from a time long
gone. He barges past the young girls waiting to get in to the party inside and dashes
into the castle and into a room with a heavy wooden door and slides home the
bolts. He knows what he's looking for. The music kicks in as the swirls of
light wrap around him as he breaks a seal with a candlestick!!! and retrieves
one of the talismans that the ‘fates’ are in search of. Of course, as with any
rescue, there has to be an altercation, and someone will always come off worse
and that's when things begin to change for Charlie.
Lurching from one disaster
to another, Charlie does a Barrowman when he tries to shut the garage door –
yes, he splits his pants!!! It doesn’t end there though, after catching his
crotch on the gear stick and breaking the car door, every bird in existence it
seems decides to crap all over his convertible. You should see my car after the
starlings have camped out on the phone wires overnight.
Chapter Two takes us back to the Isle of Shadows and sets the scene for where the ‘fates’
originate from. The girls are younger but are still able to shapeshift and fly
around the island before meeting their mother in the garden of their home. A
Kelpie is squirting water from its mouth like a fountain and a young boy plays
with two purple pups while the larger dog Effie looks on. He seems happy with
his animals but there's a burning conflict between him and his sisters. A rage
that begins to rise in Effie too almost as if she is his daemon.
The Queen insists that
Bregan, her son, keep his dogs away from the talismans currently on the altar.
He doesn't seem to understand the power with which they possess. She informs
the daughters of their role in the universe and what their talismans are for.
We learn of Bregan’s role
in the universe and given his attitude towards his sisters and the Queen, it’s
not long before we see evidence of his hatred towards them.
Putting aside their rage
for the time being, the Queen organises the family for the Hunt. This tests
them all including Effie in their hunting skills – chasing a warthog through
the forest. Effie's pups are caged while the hunt is on. When Effie is wounded and
the only way to remove the poisoned horn from the warthog is to use the dagger
on the altar, Bregan manages to cause a split in time throwing life back a few
months to before the pups were born. Naturally Bregan is raging. Honestly that
boy deserves a swift kick up the arse, a spell on the naughty step and bed
before Doctor Who and no Playstation for a month.
Back
in present day and Charlie
is still the clumsiest person out and slips and slides, falls and hurts himself
on a regular basis from now on in. To make matters worse, the fates have also
hypnotised his wife into returning to her old job, giving up charge of her son
to Charlie’s long time friend Nate. Not something she would ever normally think
to do.
Jock Stewart has passed
out in the taxi and wakes up, too late to save his son from the curse that
threatens his very livelihood.
Chapter Three
With luck hardly working
in Charlie’s favour, this episode sees Charlie lose his memories – thanks to
those pesky birds which kind of shoots the Fates in the feet don’t you think if
you’re trying to extract information about the whereabouts of Jock Stewart.
Another thing that bothered me was that, if they could mess with memories, why
couldn’t Ceillech see into Charlie’s mind to locate Jock Stewart for herself
without putting Charlie through the whole rigmarole in the first place?
Ceillech and her sisters
inform Charlie of the curse they have placed on him. They want to know the
whereabouts of his father because then they might be able to find their
talismans. Wanting nothing more to do with the girls, Charlie returns to the
office where he’s promptly arrested for the missing pension funds. Oh, it’s
always the pension money isn’t it?
Chapter Four
The story is finally coming
together now. The characters are in place and it starts to make sense from here
on in.
The Isle of Shadows Present Day
Time has moved on and Bregan
is much older and locked in a cell for crimes against the Isle of Shadows, his
family and the Kingdom. His rage still continues, and he prays for release. The
big lug of a bloke Aeron, who stabbed Jock with the dagger, has returned to the
Isle of Shadows with news of the Acursian heir.
The chapter slips back to
the Isle of Shadows Past when the winged walking dead creatures decimate the Isle
in search of the talismans and power over the universe. Given that Bregan is
locked away, they clearly don't have that power just yet.
At Thunderton house,
Elgin, Scotland in the year 1746, the young Bonnie Prince Charlie - embraces
the morning and spies something disturbing over in yonder forest.
Chapter Five
My
name is Charlie Stewart. I am the Acursian. A world of Celtic myth and Scottish
magic have crashed into my life and now every move I make ends in disaster. My
job, my wife, my son, my work, even reality itself are all in danger, unless I
find a way to reverse this ancient curse...
...And
you thought your family was fucked up...
If you hadn’t sussed the
connection before, now you’ll begin to see the link. We’re back in the year
1746 and Bonnie Prince Charlie has gone to investigate the strange lights in
the forest which he discovers as the three Fates, jumping from one world into
another, only this time hoping to hide their talismans from their avenging
brother, Bregan. Unfortunately for the girls, someone is watching them. In much
the same way as there’s always someone walking a dog when there’s been a
murder!!!
Back in Present Day and
Charlie is absolutely overwhelmed by all that he’s lost, although Nate thinks
that all his Christmasses have come at once when Charlie’s expensive clothes
disappear.
Isle of Shadows - Aftermath of Bregon's Coup
Aeron has let Bregan down,
and a blood oath binds him until the talismans are retrieved and brought to the
brattish young man.
Bonnie Prince Charlie has
found the prize possessions and buries them somewhere safe and hopes to bargain
with the Fates in order to fight for Scotland and kill the English.
Back in Nate's apartment
(present day) and an almost naked Charlie is being harassed by an impatient
Stork. There's a few comedic moments before she enters through the window. This
time, instead of trying to humiliate him, she wants to help him. Suddenly he's
not the only one who is confused. She explains to Charlie that the curse has
been upon his family for centuries. The curse that can only be broken by a
Stewart. They have to find his Dad.
Chapter 6
Scotland 1746
Bonnie Prince Charlie
seems to know a lot about the Isle of Shadows. If he needs to win the war
against the English, he may need a certain God of War at his side. You can see
where this is going, can’t you?
Back on the Isle of
Shadows and it seems that Connell could be playing with fire when she comes
upon her brother after the Kingdom is in ruins. Connell was the one I had some confusion
with. Just how big is this family, and are there more than three Fates?
Back in present day Earth,
and Charlie and his friends arrive to see his father lifted into an ambulance. We
discover who has been feeding Bregan with information about the Acursian heir,
just as the dagger is removed. With the
fight for the dagger, a lot more than a few hours are pushed back. How much
more can Charlie lose before it’s too late to stop the curse?
Chapter 7
There’s no time to mourn
for lost lives as Police officers in full battle gear exit armoured vehicles
and seal off the area. They need to call an ambulance but there’s a familiarity
about the young woman officer who has an interest in the dagger lying beside a
body.
Culloden Moor morning April 16th 1746.
This time the music
accompanying this chapter remains for some time, even after scrolling up and
down the page - unless it's on a timer.
As Bonnie Prince Charlie's
aide Ogilvy informs him that they are outnumbered and outmanoeuvred and that
it's better to leave fighting for another day, Bregan enters with Aeron,
demanding to know where his talismans are, and are in possession of a familiar
woman known to the Prince. After much bargaining for their life and that of Ogilvy,
Charlie agrees to a blood oath that will seal his fate for the coming centuries
if he can only win against the English in battle. So you can only imagine that
along the way the Bonnie Prince Charlie did an awfully big Bad.
Present day morning and
the Stork sister Corra discovers that not only has the dagger been used, but
the staff also, throwing time back more than a few minutes. Time didn't just
hiccup, it full on burped! Because time has fallen back so much, Charlie hopes
and prays that he still has a wife and a son.
Chapter 8
Life has changed and
possibly forever unless Charlie can retrieve the dagger and help the Fates
locate the final talismans and put the world back as it was before all hell
broke loose. Nate is a wanted man after being spotted hiding Charlie in an
alleyway. Corra is suspicious of Charlie’s friend Nate, but before she can find
out further, the Police arrive and arrest Nate. So, who is he and why didn’t he
disappear when all of Charlie’s other possessions and connections disappeared?
The story and the artwork
are fantastic. I did get a little lost regarding certain characters, especially
Ceillech and Corra, and further confusion with Connell, but all will be
revealed I’m sure before the end of the story. I was disappointed that
Barrowman didn’t continue the narration past the trailer. I liked the music but
it only tended to play for a short while, or during a certain part, and if you
were perhaps, as I was for the review, scrolling up and down the page, it would
tail off, or stop abruptly, or play for a certain scene, or as I found, when I
strayed too long on a certain chapter, kick in with the end credit music before
I was even half way through.
Web comics are not as
engaging for me. I prefer graphic novels that I can sit down and read away from
the computer. The constant scrolling became frustrating when for much of the
time I was facing a white screen before I saw any artwork.
But I do have one
question, that I wonder if it will be answered – if John plays Charlie, who
does Carole play?
