Assassin’s Apprentice #1 adapts the beginning of Robin Hobb’s fantasy novel with a compelling story of a young hero! The 1995 novel is the first part of The Farseer Trilogy. I was fascinated by the premise and picked up this issue. The painted cover by Anna Steinbauer has a young boy holding his cloak with a castle in the background. It is scripted by Jody Houser who has written Critical Role comic books for Dark Horse. The artist is Ryan Kelly who worked on the horror title, Survivors’ Club, for Vertigo.
It is a rainy day in a village of the Six Duchies. We are told about the first King named Taker and the tradition of names defining royal persons. Colorist Jordie Bellaire depicts the scene in muted colors as if washed away in the rain. We see a woman reaching after a cloaked man holding a boy’s hand. The six year old boy turns and we see his uncertain face splattered by raindrops. In shadow, she tries to reach her father, and pleads for the boy. Instead, he throws a snowball, “dirty ice” in the book, at his daughter’s face.
We are told that the names are almost a magic keeping a person to its virtue. This is like the magical tradition of True Names like I’ve read in Ursula K. Leguin’s A Wizard of Earthsea (1968), but more literal! They are met by the doorkeeper, a man in quilted armor, who does not speak at first. An older man, his identity is hid by his hood, explains that he raised the boy for six years and no longer wants him around.
He throws down the boy and says his father is Prince Chivalry’s bastard child. We see the boy sad at the foot of the guard as the man walks away. Good perspective and expressions by Kelly. They walk into the castle’s halls, lit by the blue, wintry light and the orange glow of torches. The guard checks his uniform and then tries to tidy up the boy before knocking on the door. Inside is the study of a lord, Prince Verity, well lit by candles and a fireplace. He asks the guard, Jason, and he explains that a plowman brought Prince Chivalry’s son. I really like the name of the prince.
The lord leaves his desk of letters and books to examines the boy. He remarks that the boy looks like Prince Chivalry, I really like that we are told about the prince, but only know him by description at this point. Verity does recall that Chiv was there seven years ago and asks the child’s name. He says it is “Boy” which is fine since he doesn’t get his True Name at this point. He sends Jason to get the boy fed and give him a place to stay. They walk and the boy slumps his head against a wall! He picks up the boy on his shoulder, a look of joy on both of them.
They go to long table with men eating and drinking. Jason turns the boy over to Burrich who works for Chivalry. There is mention of “Eda’s will” so we have some idea of a deity. Also that Chivalry’s wife is Lady Patience who has not had a child. Burrich ignores the gossip over the mother and then takes the boy out to the raining courtyard and into the stables. He finds a place in some hay for some dogs Burrich says that the mother, Vixen, will protect him. He gives a blanket for the boy. I like that there is a passing off of the boy and how he may be confused about what is happening.
He walks away with a lantern as the boy holds a puppy. There is a swirl of blue around him. Then, we get two pages brightly lit in vivid colors, a vision of the puppy chasing a rabbit in a forest, swirls of images. I’m reminded of the wolf scent scenes in Wolfwalkers (2020), but I love this world of bright colors without grayness. We see the dog’s thoughts, “scent. follow.”, and I love the simple, animal thoughts. The puppy disturbs two birds and then leads the dream-image of the boy to a river to catch a fish. Large image of the smiling boy and dog.
Then, an insert panel of the dogs around the boy in the stable. He has made a connection to the puppy who follows him around the castle. This is a short scene in the book, but I like its visualization here, brilliant adaptation by Houser and Hobb. Much of the dialogue is identical from Robin Hobb’s novel. I started reading it after finishing the comic book and recommend both! I wasn’t biased by the images, I actually had my own depictions of the characters and setting. We haven't gotten to Taker's assassin training, but this world is easy to get lost in. Assassin’s Apprentice #1 introduces Taker and his journey has just begun in a fascinating medieval-type world!
Five Scents out of Five!
#AssassinsApprentice, #RobinHobb, #TheFarseerTrilogy, #JodyHouser, #RyanKelly, #SixDuchies, #Taker, #PrinceChivalry, #Burrich, #LordVerity, #LadyPatience
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