Review by Karl Verhoven

Suitor Armour is a clever medieval fantasy with magical elements centred on the castle of King Reimund, where Lucia is lady in waiting and friend to Princess Kirsi. What few know is that although she can pass for human she’s actually a fairy, a species against which the kingdom wages war. The further complication is Court Mage Norrix magically creating a suit of armour that turns out to have a personality, and now limited forms of speech. As seen in Volume One, he’s been named Modeus.

Creator Purpah manages to slip most of the pertinent information into the opening scene of Kirsi picking out an outfit for a hunting trip, and what’s not there can be picked up along the way. The brief synopsis is Suitor Armor continuing to be a good-natured drama featuring strong characters with plausible motivations, attractively drawn, and with enough mysteries about it to keep the pages turning.

Although the armour features, it’s really as a maguffin than a true protagonist, who is actually Lucia. The sample art is the key revelation this volume offers, meaning Lucia is instantly able to perform magic considerably beyond a novice’s expected level, but she also rapidly learns much of what she and the remainder of the castle believes may actually be lies and that she’s in danger. That is, if the source can be believed.

Suitor Armor is published in thick volumes, but Purpah isn’t a storyteller given to idle waste of space and she moves the plot forward with some pace. Not everything set in motion is resolved here, but the duality of action and consequences plays out. Change and revelation are par for the course and just when you think you’ve seen all the artistic tricks on offer surprises await. There’s some beautiful use of colour during a transformational sequence, and Modeus is constantly played against type.

Purpuh ends the main story with a possibly unpleasant surprise before heading to a bonus chapter dipping back into Baynard’s past. He’s a knight whose role isn’t as prominent here as it was in the opening volume, and we see how his relationship with his squire began. Emotions run far higher in this volume than in the first, “it is better for you to be human” carries an even greater resonance than before, and Suitor Armor continues to be first rate fantasy drama.