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Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard #3 – Review

Mouse Guard is a series that has grown with popularity since arriving on the comic scene. It is one of those books that critics and retailers didn’t think twice about, but that fans latched onto. The word of mouth has made it one of Archaia’s biggest if not THE biggest selling title from the company. Creator/Writer/Artist David Peterson’s four issue mini-series format has become a staple in the series development and showed the industry as a whole that you don’t need to be numbered monthly to be successful. The latest series “Legends of the Guard” is a mixture of short stories set in the world of Mouse Guard.

The series has already played host to some of the biggest, smallest and up and coming talents of indie comics with a mix of seasoned talent as well. This issue is no different as Fraggle Rock fan favorite Katie Cook begins the issue with her story, “A Mouse Named Fox.” As the title eludes the story follows a mouse that is raised by foxes. As is the customary tradition of any society, Fox leaves home as he comes of age. He ventures out into the world and runs into his first mouse. After helping the mouse on its way he’s left with questions about his identity. He finds another fox (a real one) attacking a mouse village. After seeing the destruction caused by the fox he decides to live up to his name and pull a sly one on the other fox.

Legends Cover #3There’s a variety of storytelling styles in this issue. The next story is completely silent and very light hearted. The third story is a song told by Bard. Granted his job is to tell stories, but he too must adhere to the rules set in the first issue and tell an original story. The final story is an adaption of the Raven by Poe and although not very original it is interesting and fits the series thus far.

The real message of this series is that everyone has a story to tell. Granted the message is subtle and mostly over shadowed by the creative force of the series, but that is the message. I personally enjoy stories that are as encouraging as they are fun to read.

As good as this issue is it wasn’t as strong as the previous two issues. The art styles were great, but Katie Cook’s style is a sharp contrast to the rest of the series. It’s still very good art and storytelling but probably not the best choice to lead the issue off with. The stories were good, but didn’t capture the heart and soul that the first two issues did. They did flow together quiet well which is probably why they were grouped together, but I’m afraid it made for a weaker issue overall.

Fans of Mouse Guard (which there are many) should still pick up the issue as it is still worthy of reading and very enjoyable. Isn’t that why people read stories? To be entertained? With the first two issues Neil set the bar pretty high which makes scoring this issue, all the more difficult. Honestly regardless of the score, pick the book up and see if it’s right for you.

Overall Score - 8.0/10

Enjoy Archaia titles? For more information check out Archaia.com

 

Rating
8.0

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