Kings’ Road #1 Review: Mediocre and Generic

The fantasy genre has been around for centuries. J.R.R Tolkien was the one man who practically created the genre. Since then, a ton of fantasy stories has cropped up with many taking stuff from Tolkien and maybe even adding their own spin. “King’s Road” by Peter Hogan with art by Phil Winslade and Staz Johnson is the newest addition to this genre and it’s as generic as a lot of its kind.

The sorceress Malicia has raised an army of creatures to battle against King Michael. After slaying him, the king’s brother, who is living in our world, is notified and is told return with his family to take back the throne.

This is the typical “we must defeat the evil king/queen” plot with the added addition of taking place on earth. This is a plot that has been used for the past fifteen years with varying degrees of quality. It’s a shame that Peter Hogan has made this story as generic as possible.

We see the typical kids who are oblivious to where they really came from, the evil monarch and the typical fantasy creatures. There is once instance where Hogan gets even that wrong. The character Hop is called a dwarf. When you look at him, he looks nothing like what you’d think a dwarf looks like. He’s not even super short. The story even becomes self-aware when the mother tells her kids that their life is like those fantasy books where there’s earth and then there’s a fantasy world.

The rest of the story isn’t all that interesting. Most of the comic focuses on the two teenagers, Ashley and Tyler. They are about as boring as most teenagers are in most stories. Their mother even said that they were trained in martial arts, archery and fencing so they can return and fight the evil sorceress like in a lot of fantasy stories even though they’d die in a second in a real battle.

The art is the only decent thing about the comic. It’s nothing too spectacular, nor is it an eyesore. The characters look fine, the fantasy beats look fine and the magic used is fine. There’s not a lot to say about the art except that it’s there.

“King’s Road” has a generic story with very little to separate itself from others like it with decent art and boring characters. There’s so much Hogan could have done with the story but decided to take the easy route.