Review by Karl Verhoven

Scarlett Thawn has been sent to a prestigious distant school to hone her magical talents, and it’s there she learns her family have been murdered. Behind that is an ancient malevolent force, currently trapped, but with enough acolytes striving to set them free. Scarlett returns home to claim her kingdom, but it’s a journey fraught with danger.

However, as she’s not be fully qualified, every time she’s endangered Scarlett needs rescued, while the over-arching menace, Obaga, Queen of Shadows, is represented as pair of glowering eyes in the darkness. They’re prone to pronouncements such as “We will see our enemies scattered and broken before us and all of creation shrouded in darkness”. The environment is the standard faux-medieval lands where humanoid animals walk alongside genuine humans, and the villains plot in caves so dark they can be barely be distinguished, but have no trouble reading maps.

Legacy is likely to be a young reader’s first encounter with the intended fantasy trilogy, and so they’re unlikely to realise just how derivative it is. While some similarities with the stock form are only to be expected, co-writers Tom and Will Fickling bring so little originality that they might be adapting something written for 1950s children’s comics. Only the mysterious helpful stranger having dark skin indicates The Shadow Rises being of more representational times. The Fickling brothers also slip over the line separating keeping things simple for young readers and talking down to them. They do have a surprise in store near the end, but without disclosing the direct nature, they’ve told readers it’s coming a hundred pages beforehand. This would pass by in weekly serialised installments, but stands out in a graphic novel.

Spectacular art could dispel the feeling of familiarity, but Zak Simmods-Hurn tells the story well enough without ever achieving the decorative wonder that might prevent a page turning as readers lost themselves in a landscape.

A graphic novel issued by David Fickling Books usually comes with pre-supposed quality, but so far Legacy is one that’s slipped through the net. Perhaps there’ll be an improvement in The Battle For Hightown.