Best Shots Advance: Dynamite's BLACKBEARD #1

Blackbeard: Legend of the Pyrate King #1 -- Advanced look
Written by Robert Place Napton and Jamie Nash
Story by Gregg Hale and Eduardo Sanchez
Art by Mario Guevara
Colors by Romulo Fajarado, jr
Letters by Bill Tortolini
Research by Steve Fussell
Published by Dynamite Entertainment
Review by Lan Pitts

It would seem to me that having two people come up with the story, one person for actual research, and then two different people actually writing the script, you would come up with something better than bland. The thing is, the story was actually conceived by a writer (Sanchez) and a producer (Hale) of The Blair Witch Project, and maybe it's just me, but I expected a bit more, especially for an inaugural issue like this.

Now, it's not horrid or unreadable by any means, just underwhelming. It is fascinating to see Teach in the spotlight as some sort of hero. I know the book not going to be entirely historically accurate or going to be some sort of epic bio-comic, it just came off as run-of-the-mill. It opens with a massive storm at sea with Edward Teach, not yet called by his infamous name, ordering his crewmen and the scene is spliced with flashbacks of his childhood. The captain of the ship is a man by the name of Richards and keeps a stern hand and sterner lash.

 Through a series of events, we see Teach as a role as the mentor and caretaker of his fellow crewmen. The scenes are beautifully drawn and the panel construction is overall solid. Fajarado, jr's coloring adds a a nice layer over Guevara's pencils and the two styles mesh well together.

Some pirate fans are probably going to buy this anyway, and I support that. This was made for you out there. I might check out the trade if I hear things have improved, plus I'm a history nut and kind of interested to see if they're going to take more liberties or stick to the story.