Review by Ian Keogh
Edward Teach is the figure who most readily comes to mind when considering pirate legends, a canny naval tactician and inspirational leader known as Blackbeard. Yet his career was surprisingly brief at under three years spent terrorising naval craft and raiding communities along the USA’s East coast.
The accompanying promotion would have it that Blackbeard’s legacy has never been explored as deeply, which is possibly true, but also promises much that can’t be delivered as almost nothing is known about Blackbeard before his piracy began in 1716, and he was killed in 1718. The Blair Witch Project creators Greg Hale and Eduardo Sanchez are credited for ‘story’, while TV writers Robert Place Napton and Jamie Nash are credited as writers, presumably fleshing out a film proposal.
They certainly begin at a point of maximum visual potential with Blackbeard attempting a daring rescue during a terrible storm followed by recollections both of the young Teach’s life and how he met some men he shares a ship with. Mario Guevara makes the most of the situation, emphasising the conditions and the bravery, and he brings a similar life to any kind of battle thereafter. His Teach is a brooding brute, quick to violence and unafraid of slaughter, yet sometimes shocked at the consequences. Guevara doesn’t shy from showing these, and Legend of the Pyrate King is exceptionally violent.
By the third chapter the writers are on surer historical ground, showing Teach signing up with Captain Benjamin Horngold, very much the equal opportunity employer for his day. His career progresses from there, although it’s an individual interpretation casting Blackbeard as having an agenda beyond plunder and riches, wanting to address the social iniquities of colonial landlords. It is a matter of record, though, that he’d not always kill the captains of ships he robbed.
Like most recountings of Blackbeard’s life, Legend of the Pyrate King is a rollicking good pirate adventure, perhaps standing a little above the pack due to Guevara’s dynamism. It also maintains a legend by cutting off with Blackbeard at his zenith rather than finishing his story, although that finish is referenced in a dream. If you like a pirate adventure jump in with your boots on.
